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MEN AND MANNERS 
OF OLD 
FLORENCE 



J\/[en and banners 
of Old Florence 



'By gUIDO ■SIAGI 

I : 
Librarian of the Laurentian and "Kiccardi Libraries^ Florence 



With Forty-nine Illustrations 



CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG AND CO. 

1909 



o 



^%i 



HH3r 



{All rights reserved.] 



y/7 



PREFACE 

' I 'HESE five essays, which now appear for the first 
-*• time collected in book form, do not pretend to 
be a complete study of the private life of the 
Florentines in different centuries, but only sketches 
for a larger picture which I hope some time to be 
able to execute. 

But, although detached, these sketches give realistic 
glimpses of the social life in Florence from the 
thirteenth to the beginning of last century ; of the 
times, in short, when she had an individual life and 
character of her own, and her native manners and 
customs had not yet been submerged and lost in the 
great stream of modern influence and fashion. 

I should like to state, however, that these essays are 
founded upon entirely new material and documents 
which have never hitherto been used, and are in no 
way merely compiled from the usual hackneyed sources 
used and abused by most modern writers on Florentine 
subjects. I may say with Alfred De Musset : " Mon 
verre n est 'pas grand^ mais je bois dans mon verrey 

GUIDO BIAGI. 

Florence, the Laurentian Library, 
October, 1908. 



^7 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Florence within her Ancient Boundary . . 13 

The Mind and Manners of a Florentine 

Merchant of the Fourteenth Century . 53 

The Private Life of the Renaissance 

Florentines 83 

TULLIA OF ArRAGON I4I 

The Twilight of the Past . . . .251 

Index . . 315 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



V 



LORENZO DEI MEDICI. BY VASARI 
(Alinari.) 

A VIEW OF FLORENCE IN THE FRESCO OF 
THE BIGALLO ..... 

{Alinari, ) 

THE WALLS OF FLORENCE .... 

(From the Chronicles by Villani of the Ch'igi 
Library.) 

SAN GIOVANNI ...... 

{From the Chronicles by Villani.') 

WOOL MERCHANTS ..... 

(From a miniature of the RiccarJi Library.) 

THE LAMB OF THE WOOL GUILD 

THE CORNCHANDLER IN HIS SHOP 

(From an early XIV. Century MS. in the 
Laurentian Library^ 

A CRAFTSMAN OF THE SILK GUILD 

(From a miniature of the Riccardi Lib. vy.) 

A CRAFTSMAN OF THE SILK GUILD 

(From the same MS.) 

SCENE IN CORN MARKET, FLORENCE . 

(From an early XIV. Century MS. in the 
Laurentian Library.) 

THE FRESCO IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE 
WOOL GUILD, REPRESENTING THE GOOD 
AND BAD OFFICERS .... 



. Frontispiece 

Facing page I 7 
19 





24 




45 




47 




65 




67 




69 




71 



73 



lo ILLUSTRATIONS 

/ 

THE CORN MARKET OF OR SAN MICHELE . Facing page 75 

{From an early XIV. Century MS, in the 
Laurentian Library.) 

THE CHURCH OF SANTA REPARATA AND THE 

CAMPANILE . . . , . }) 77 

{From the same MS., called the " Biadajolo.") 

THE ANCIENT BOUNDARY OF FLORENCE . „ 79 

{From the same MS?) 

THE FRESCO BY CENNINI IN THE PRISON OF 

THE STINCHB „ 81 ^ 

{Alinari?) 

THE PULPIT OF SAN PIERO SCHERAGGIO, 
FROM WHICH DANTE ADDRESSED THE 
PEOPLE „ 83 

{Alinari.) 

SAN GIOVANNI, THE CAMPANILE, AND SANTA 
MARIA DEL FIORE IN A FRESCO OF 
SANTA CROCE 

THE PICTURE BY DOMENICO DI MICHELINO 

{From an old engraving.) 

OR SAN MICHELE, THE SHRINE BY ORCAGNA 
{Alinari.) 

THE OLD MARKET ..... 
{From a drawing by Burci. Alinari.) 

THE OLD MARKET BEFORE ITS DEMOLITION 

THE OLD MARKET WITH THE LOGGIA DEL 
PESCE BY VASARI .... 

{Alinari.) 

THE DEVIL, BY GIAMBOLOGNA, AT THE 

CORNER OF THE VECCHIETTI PALACE, 

IN THE OLD MARKET ... ,,97 

(Alinari.) 



J> 


":> 


» 


87 


n 


89 


» 


91' 


j> 


93 


>5 


95 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



II 



THE FRESCO OF THE MONASTERY OF LECCETO, 
SHOWING GAMBLERS AND KEEPERS OF 
GAMING TABLES ..... 

THE LOGGIA OF THE BIGALLO . 
{Alinari.) , 

PORTRAIT OF FRANCESCO DATINI 

(Alinari.) 

THE TOMB OF FRANCESCO DATINI IN THE 
CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO, PRATO 

(Alinari.) 

FLORENTINE COSTUMES AT THE TIME OF 
THE DUKE OF CALABRIA, FROM THE 
FRESCO BY SIMONE MARTINI, CHAPEL 
OF THE SPAGNOLI, SANTA MARIA 
NOVELLA ...... 

(Alinari.) 

THE WEDDING OF BACCIO ADIMARI AND 
LISA RICASOLI . . 

(Alinari) 

THE HOLY SEPULCHRE IN THE RUCELLAI 
CHAPEL, SAN PANCRAZIO 

(Alinari. ) 

THE STROZZI PALACE. BY BENEDETTO DA 
MAJANO 

(Alinari.) 

SAVONAROLA IN HIS CELL .... 

THE SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO 
(Alinari.) 

TULLIA OF ARRAGON .... 

(Alinari.) 

PIETRO ARETINO. BY TITIAN . . . 

(Alinari.) 



Facing page 



98 

100 

102 

104 



; 



107 
126 
129 

139 

140 
142 

144 

150 



12 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FILIPPO STROZZI 

(^linari.) 

VITTORIA COLONNA. BY MUZIANO 
(Alinari.) 

A COURTESAN. BY PARIS BORDONE 
{^linari.) 

ELEONORA DI TOLEDO. BY BRONZING 
[Alinart.) 

THE GRAND DUKE FERDINAND III. . 

THE TOWER OF THE ADIMARI AT THE 
ENTRANCE OF VIA CALZAJOLI 

VIA CALZAJOLI, BEFORE THE ENLARGEMENT 
(From a contemporary dra-wing.) 

THE PONTE ALLE GRAZIE BEFORE ITS RE- 
STORATION 

{Alinari.) 

THE CORSA DEI BARBERI (a RACE BY BARE- 
BACKED horses). PICTURE BY GIOVANNI 

SIGNORINI 

[Brogi. ) 

A MASQUERADE IN PIAZZA SANTA CROCE . 
(Alinari.) 

A SCENE OF THE EPIPHANY 

{Alinari.) 

THE CHARIOT RACE IN THE PIAZZA SANTA 
MARIA NOVELLA. PICTURE BY GIOVANNI 
SIGNORINI 

{Alinari.) 

THE FIREWORKS ON THE PONTE ALLA CAR- 
RAJA. BY SIGNORINI .... 
(Alinari.) 

THE GRAND DUKE LEOPOLD II. . 



Facing page 


162 


» 


169 


J> 


203 


» 


234 


» 


262 


5) 


265 


JJ 


267 



>J 



268 



„ 270 
„ 272 



274 



„ 276 

„ 278 
« 308 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER ANCIENT 
BOUNDARY 



Men and Manners of Old 
Florence 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER ANCIENT 
BOUNDARY 



I 



IT is not easy for us of the present day to form a 
clear idea of old Fiorenza as she was when still 
surrounded by her ancient boundary, to reconstruct the 
beloved and longed-for image graven upon the heart of 
him who, during long and weary wanderings and all 
the sorrowful years of exile, still dwelt in memory in 
his own lost and distant city. 

To go back through the course of centuries is almost 
like mounting the stream of some mighty river. The 
tumultuous scenes of modern life are gradually left 
behind, and in their place we see before us the peaceful 
vision of a calm and smiling landscape as yet unspoiled 
by the terrors of civilisation. Higher still, where the 
stream flows clear and pure, its waters mirror the 

IS 



i6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

solitary shores overgrown with shrubs and reeds, and at 
last the mighty river becomes a mere brook rippling 
amongst rocks and stones, between steep banks covered 
on either side with thick and tangled woods. Who 
would recognise in that tiny thread of silver water 
issuing from its far-off source the same muddy, 
troubled stream which, farther down its course, flows 
through crowded cities, turning machinery and bearing 
ships, until, made foul by their contact with human 
beings, its polluted waters mingle with the sea ! 

The Florentine landscape of the thirteenth century 
had none of those lines and colours which now lend 
such grace to its hills, such brilliant freshness to its 
plains. If we climb the hill of Fiesole to-day, we look 
down upon a city which seems built of ivory and 
stone ; the silver streak of the Arno winds westward 
through the shadowy valley like a dream, and spring- 
time gives a fresh setting of flowers and leaves to the 
sun-kissed monuments of her ancient glory. Then, 
however, the "fair and gay Florentine city, the fount 
of valour and of joy, the flower of cities, Fiorenza," 
as she was called by a thirteenth-century poet, Chiaro 
Davanzati, rose proud and dark and threatening, her 
hundred and fifty great towers and her battlemented 
walls surrounded by a moat, against a sombre back- 
ground of hills not yet brightened by houses and olive 
gardens, but covered with cypresses, tall and straight 
as lances, with oak and ash and fir-trees swaying and 
rustling in the keen tramontana wind. To the north 
were Monte Morello, I'Uccellatoio and the other spurs 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 17 

of the Apennine range, turning to the fury of the 
wind their sides clothed with those thick woods of 
pine and fir which, later on, were cut down to provide 
beams and roofs for the new churches about to be 
built in the city. The Fiorenza of that time, enclosed 
within her stone walls, protected by bastions and forts 
with their countless little towers and spires, seemed 
like a beautiful woman warrior buckled in ;her iron 
armour bristling with sharp points. And only in 
later times, when the New Age had calmed her war- 
like spirit and softened the savage beauty of both soul 
and body, did she show her smiling face to the sun 
and set free her young limbs from their iron bonds. 

The few pictorial representations of that period 
which are still in existence, such as the frescoes of 
the Bigallo and the miniatures in the Biadajolo, or, 
the various reconstructions attempted by scholars like 
Vincenzo Borghini, that sixteenth-century forerunner 
of modern historical critics, show us the " ancient 
boundary," or first circle of walls, enclosing a perfect 
forest of towers, interspersed with the bright red 
roofs of lofty houses, nearly all of which were fur- 
nished with projecting parapets. It is difficult to 
recognise the Florence we know now in these old 
picture's, because we find there none of the monu- 
ments which make it familiar to our eyes. We miss 
Santa Maria del Ficre, with its great cupola and its 
majestic nave, the Campanile rising into the air 
like some tall palm-tree, and the Palace of the Priori, 

2 



i8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

surmounted by its proud and slender tower. The 
Baptistery alone existed then, though it was not 
yet clothed with marble, and it was the only 
building amongst all those intended both for defence 
and defiance, all those houses which were more 
like strongholds than private dwellings, to be saved 
and destined for a nobler fate. 

The descriptions left by old chroniclers and con- 
firmed by recent excavations enable us to determine 
the site of the ancient walls with absolute certainty. 
The moat and wall, which together formed the city 
boundary, ran on the eastern side from the Castello 
d'Altafronte, where is now the Piazza dei Giudici, 
to San Firenze and the Badia and up the Via del 
Proconsolo, forming an angle on the northern side 
of the Piazza del Duomo, opposite to the modern 
Cathedral Museum. Thence it went in a straight 
line past the Baptistery and the Archbishop's house, 
along the present Via dei Cerretani. Near the 
corner of the Via Rondinelli the moat joined the 
Mugnone river, which then took its place, and flow- 
ing past San Michele Berteldi, now San Gaetano, 
and the houses of the Tornaquinci, afterwards called 
Tornabuoni, it emptied itself into the Arno at the 
point where the Santa Trinita bridge was subsequently 
erected. On the south side the walls followed the 
site of the Via delle Terme as far as Por Santa 
Maria, and from the corner of the present Via Lam- 
bertesca they continued behind the church of San 







en 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 19 

Piero Scheraggio, which stood where is now the 
entrance to the Uffizi Gallery. That part of the 
moat was named Scheraggio and it collected all the 
rain-water of the city and carried it to the Arno. 

Giovanni Villani ' wrote that Florence possessed 
good walls with towers at frequent intervals, and 
four principal gates. These were the Porta San 
Piero, at the point where the Corso joins the Via 
del Proconsolo ; the Porta del Duomo (or San 
Giovanni), in earlier times called the Bishop's Gate, 
opposite the end of the Borgo San Lorenzo ; the Porta 
San Brancazio, at the junction of streets near the 
Strozzi Palace ; and finally the Porta Santa Maria, 
which stood opposite the earliest bridge, built " upon 
stone piles sunk in the Arno," and eventually called 
the Old Bridge, or Ponte Vecchio, after the construc- 
tion of the new bridge, or Ponte alia Carraia. Each 
gate had a secondary or outer gate, enclosed within 
battlemented walls, the space in between being a 
courtyard, which spanned the moat supported on 
two arches. The lateral towers were of two storeys, 
surmounted by machicolated platforms and having 
loopholes through which stones could be hurled at 
the enemy, or boiling liquid and burning rubbish 
dropped upon his head. 

The surrounding country was then of singular 
aspect. Beyond the Arno, San Miniato turned its 
glistening marble fagade towards the sunset, but 
there were no smiling villas and gardens to keep 
it company as there are to-day. Here and there were 



20 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

poor huts and cabins, inhabited by peasants and 
labourers, with occasionally walled enclosures or 
fortified farmhouses, wherein men, cattle and pro- 
visions were protected against hostile raids. In those 
days everything was devised for the safety of persons 
and property, for robbery and murder were looked 
upon as ever-present and inevitable dangers. 

Towards the middle of the thirteenth century, 
however, when populous suburbs had sprung up 
outside each gate, beyond the first circle of walls, 
and churches and public buildings stood where were 
formerly only bare fields, the second circle of walls 
was erected to enclose and protect these new quarters, 
as happens in every case of town extension. The 
principal enlargement of the city took place on the 
south side of the Arno, with the enclosure of the 
three populous suburbs whose chief streets meet at 
the end of the present Ponte Vecchio. These were 
the Borgo Pidiglioso, which extended as far as Santa 
Lucia de Magnoli and was inhabited by poor and 
dirty people ; the Borgo Santa Felicita, otherwise 
called the Borgo di Piazza, and the Borgo di San 
Jacopo, which had a gate near the houses where after- 
wards dwelt the Frescobaldi family. Thus the new 
city of Florence on the right side of the Arno 
possessed five gates, one for each of the five districts, 
beside several small postern gates, of which I will 
only mention the names. On the east was the Porta 
di San Pier Maggiore. On the north side was the 
Porta degli Albertinelli, at the present entrance to 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 21 

the Borgo Pinti ; the Porta di Balk, where is now 
San Michelino, and the Porta di San Lorenzo, at the 
corner of the present Via dei Ginori. On the western 
side were the small gates called Campo Corbolino, 
del Baschiera and del Trebbio, and the Porta di San 
Paolo at the entrance to Via Palazzuolo. The walls, 
not very high on the river side, now enclosed within 
the boundary the suburbs of San Brancazio, Parione, 
Santo Apostolo, and Santa Maria as far as the bridge, 
and continued along the river-bank as far as the 
Castello d'Altafronte. At this point they left the 
side of the Arno and turned northward at the Ruba- 
conte Bridge, now called Ponte alia Grazie, towards 
the corner of the Colonnine, where stood the Porta 
dei Buoi, or Cattle Gate, so called because the cattle 
market was held just outside it. This name was 
subsequently changed to that of the Porta da Messer 
Ruggero da Quona, however, when the da Quona 
faniily took up their residence in the dwelling which 
was situated over the gateway. The walls then 
continued behind San Jacopo tra' Fossi to the open 
square in front of the Franciscan church of Santa 
Croce, where a small gate gave access to the Arno 
island, and thence ran in a straight line, without either 
gate or postern, to San Pier Maggiore. 



II 



SUCH, then, was the Fiorenza of the times of 
Cacciaguida and Dante, the city whose manners 
and customs I shall endeavour to describe in as few 
words as possible, giving you brief glimpses into that 
life so remote from our present thoughts, although 
sung and glorified in many an immortal verse. 

I will spare you further topographical details, which 
are only interesting to the Florentines themselves, 
and more especially to those who witnessed the de- 
molition of the third circle of walls, when the Italian 
capital was moved from Turin to Florence on its 
way to its legendary and historical site in Rome, and 
the voices of the National Parliament echoed in that 
Hall of the Cinquecento which for more than three 
centuries had not heard united the words King, People 
and Liberty. 

Let us imagine ourselves entering Florence on 
some fair spring morning during the second half 
of the thirteenth century. We arrive on foot or on 
horseback, and having passed through the outlying 
suburbs, composed of modest houses and cabins which 
line the roads outside each gate, we come to the 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 23 

Porta del Vescovo, where the watchful guards, 
jingling their rusty keys, cry loudly to the wayfarer, 
*' Who art thou ? Hast thou nought in thy purse ? " 
Having given that reply which in all ages succeeds 
in opening gates and taming Cerberus, we cross the 
moat, pass through the second'gateway, and are greeted 
by the sound of bells as we enter the city just waking 
to its daily work. From each church and chapel 
the bells are pealing gaily, and not only from the 
towers and belfries, but from every arch and niche 
and window where they can be hung. There are 
more than eighty of them, and at their persistent 
call the narrow, tortuous streets below begin to show 
signs of animation. At the massive doorways of the 
high houses appear the pale and wary faces of the 
merchants, who dare not issue forth until they hear 
that the neighbours and tradesmen are also throwing 
open their houses and shops ; then upon the threshold 
they say a short prayer, make the sign of the cross, 
and betake themselves to church. 

The streets gradually fill with people. Here are 
clergy in great numbers, monks and nuns, pilgrims 
and lay sisters ; here are peasants coming in from 
the country with their donkey-carts laden with vege- 
tables ; knights in armour striding along proudly 
and impatiently, as though they were lords of all ; 
rough artisans and workmen singing as they urge 
on their asses by force of kicks and cries ; jesters 
and wandering players go about seeking some good- 
natured temporary host ; fruit-sellers and market- 



24 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

women, carrying their swaddled babies slung at their 
backs, exercise their tongues over other people's affairs 
as they trundle along to their stalls, whilst armed 
men belonging to some of the great houses make 
their way through the increasing crowd with grim 
and threatening faces, their hands ready to draw sword 
or dagger from its sheath. Opposite to the Bishop's 
Palace — an elaborate building conspicuous for its loggia, 
or covered terrace, then perhaps the only one in 
the city — was the atrium 2in6i entrance to the Baptistery 
of San Giovanni ; the church itself was surrounded 
by arches, partly of marble and partly of stone, 
beneath which idlers and ragged philosophers of all 
sorts were accustomed to congregate. The porphyry 
columns and the pillar commemorating the dead tree 
which blossomed anew at the funeral of San Zanobius 
were in the same places where they are seen to-day, 
but between the Baptistery and the church of Santa 
Reparata, to the left of which was a tower, stood the 
Hospital of St. John the Evangelist, a refuge for the 
poor and for pilgrims. 

The people crowded into the narrow spaces between 
these various buildings and overflowed into the 
churchyard of Santa Reparata, ground afterwards 
covered by the great transepts of Santa Maria del 
Fiore. Their business and their gossip was mostly 
carried on in the Mercato Vecchio, the old market- 
place which possessed *' four churches at its four 
corners," amongst the labyrinth of lanes and alleys 
round Or San Michele, in the Piazza del Comune, 




> s 
2 5 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 25 

which had then not yet been enlarged by extension 
over the ruins of the Uberti dwellings, or in the open 
place in front of the Ponte Vecchio, which was used 
as a market for fruit and vegetables. Here the good 
people who sat comfortably upon the benches and 
stone seats listened eagerly to the tales and jokes 
of the professional jesters and buffoons, to the hair- 
raising accounts of crime committed in the city, or 
to the dreadful threats and prophecies of some friar 
or hermit just returned from the Holy Land ; but 
even if these conversations could be repeated, the 
meaning and the witticisms would in most cases be 
incomprehensible to our modern minds. The old 
men recalled events of their youth ; they described 
floods so terrible that the swollen Arno overflowed 
its banks and turned the city into a lake, causing 
widespread ruin and the deaths of many persons by 
drowning. Besides this feared and constantly recur- 
ring disaster, there were the fires which had several 
times destroyed Florence, and which were due partly 
to the carelessness of the inhabitants and the great 
amount of inflammable material collected within a 
confined space, and partly to the malice and revenge 
of the various parties and factions. These conflagra- 
tions claimed many victims ; whole families perished 
together and a great deal of property, valuable furni- 
ture and precious things were lost. Wherefore the 
sage advisers of the day were constantly reminding 
the people to take all precautions against fire and 
to have a way of escape ready from doors, windows. 



26 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

or roof in case of a blaze in the house. There were 
also the robberies committed by the armed adherents 
or servants of certain families, who sallied forth at 
night with a banner bearing their master's arms and 
an escort of foot-soldiers, and broke into houses, 
carrying ofF everything, even to the garments and 
bedclothes of the household and " leaving the 
children, both male and female, naked upon their 
bedsteads ; worse things were not done even in Acre by 
the Saracens." These attacks, moreover, were arranged 
beforehand, for it is related how certain persons 
previously went about to all the threatened houses, 
warning the women and " offering to take charge 
of and keep safely anything which they might desire 
to place in security during the time of danger then 
about to begin. But when once these ruffians had got 
hold of the property they gave very little of it back 
to the owners, and only replied with threats to those 
who demanded the restoration of their ill-gotten gains. 

These melancholy tales, however, were often varied 
by more cheerful memories. The gossips would 
tell of the merry discussions held in lordly assemblies 
where the guests passed their time in listening to 
jests and entertaining stories, and where the jesters 
and story-tellers who were engaged to provide the 
amusement sometimes failed to please and were mal- 
treated in consequence. Repartee and witty remarks 
were permitted to inferiors, even to the servants who 
waited at table. 

'' A company of knights was once supping in one 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 27 

of the great Florentine houses, and there was present 
a jester who was a most excellent story-teller. When 
the supper was finished he began a tale which seemed 
as though it would never end. A youth belonging 
to the house, who was serving the company and was 
probably hungry for his own supper, called him by 
name and said — 

" ' He who taught thee that tale did not teach thee 
all.' 

" ' How so ? ' asked the jester. 

"And the youth replied, 'Because he did not teach 
thee the end.' " 

Those who made it their business to spread city 
gossip took less delight in witty sayings, however, 
than in the practical jokes played upon countrymen 
and persons of feeble mind. They described a trick 
played by the shop-boys of a jacket maker upon a 
peasant (peasants were popularly called martori^ or 
martyrs) who had come into Florence to buy himself 
a jacket, or smock. 

" He entered a shop and asked for the master. 
He was not there. Said an apprentice, ' I am the 
master ; what desirest thou .? ' 

" ' I want a smock,' said the peasant. 

" The apprentice found one suitable, and the peasant 
tried it on and inquired the price. The poor man 
did not, however, possess a quarter of the sum, so 
was bidden to draw off the smock. Now in pre- 
tending to try on the smock and arrange it about 
the man's legs, the apprentice had secretly fastened 



28 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

it to his shirt, so that when the peasant drew off the 
smock he drew off his shirt with it and stood there 
naked. The other apprentices were ready with their 
straps, and the peasant was whipped and mocked at 
throughout all the country side." 

Even the priests never dreamt of treating the country 
people as Christians. "A peasant went to confession, 
one day, and having taken some holy water, he saw 
the priest busy in the orchard. He called to him 
and said : 

" 'Oh, sir, I desire to make confession.' 

" ' Didst thou confess last year ? ' asked the priest. 

" The man answered that he had done so. 

" ' Then,' said the worthy cleric, ' put a penny in 
the box and consider that I have granted thee the 
same forgiveness this year as I did last.' " 

Those who were stupid or dull-witted had to take 
the consequences, beside being the victims of practical 
jokes, as was the case with Ser Frulli, an old man 
who owned a fine farm on the hill of San Giorgio, 
and lived there with his family almost all the year 
round. Every morning he used to send his servant 
to sell fruit and vegetables in the square near the 
bridge, and he was so miserly and distrustful that he 
tied up the bundles of vegetables himself, counted 
them, and told the girl how much money he expected 
her to bring back. The chief injunction he laid upon 
her, however, was that she must never dawdle in the 
street of San Giorgio, because the women there were 
thieves. Now there was a Florentine named Bito, 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 29 

who lived in the quarter of San Giorgio and was 
noted for his amusing tricks, one of which he deter- 
mined to play on Ser Frulli. He put on a rich, 
fur-trimmed dress, the best he had, and sat down on 
the seat outside his own door. When the servant 
came by with a basket of cabbages he called her, and 
she went up to him immediately, although she had paid 
no attention to several women who had previously 
offered to buy from her. 

" Good woman, how much do these cabbages cost ? " 
asked Bito. 

" Messere, two bundles for a penny." 

" Certainly this is a good portion. But seeing 
that all my family is away in the country and that 
I am alone here with my servant, a whole portion 
would be too much for me. Moreover, I prefer to 
eat my vegetables whilst they are fresh." 

At that time small medals were in current use in 
Florence, two medals being worth a penny ; where- 
fore Bito said : 

"Give me a medal's worth. Now then, give thou 
me a penny and I give thee a medal, and another day 
will I take the second bundle." 

The girl thought it was all right and did as she 
was told ; then she went on and sold the remainder 
of her vegetables at the price fixed by her master. 
When she returned home she handed the money to 
Ser Frulli, who immediately counted it over and 
found it a penny short. He questioned the girl, but 
she replied that it was impossible ; the money was 



30 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

correct. Thereupon he grew angry with her and 
asked her if she had stopped anywhere in San Giorgio. 
At first she tried to deny it, but her master frightened 
her so much that she admitted it and said : 

" Yes, I stopped and sold to a fair knight and he 
paid me well. Moreover, he bade me bring him 
another bundle of cabbages." 

" Then we have lost half a penny," answered Ser 
FruUi. 

He thought over the matter and presently per- 
ceived the trick, whereupon he began to abuse 
the servant roundly and asked where the man lived 
to whom she had sold the cabbages. She described 
the house, and then he knew that it was Bito, who 
had already played him a number of tricks. He was 
furious, and the next morning he got up early, hid 
a rusty sword under his cloak and went to the square 
by the bridge, where he found Bito sitting with a 
number of other people. Ser Frulli drew his sword 
and would have wounded Bito if another man had 
not immediately seized him by the arms ; and the 
people all drew back in alarm, thinking there was 
going to be an uproar. Bito was frightened at first, 
but then, remembering what had happened, he began 
to laugh. Thereupon the people surrounded Ser 
Frulli and asked what was the matter, and he described 
the whole affair, though he was so breathless he could 
scarcely speak. Bito called for silence, however, and 
said : 

" Ser Frulli, I will make terms with you ; let us 



WITHIN HER ANCIENT BOUNDARY 31 

have no more words. Give me back my penny and 
take your medal, and ye may also have your cabbages, 
and a curse go with them ! " 

Ser FruUi answered, " It is well, and if ye had 
spoken thus at the first, all this trouble would never 
have been." 

And not perceiving the fresh trick, he gave back 
the penny and received a medal in exchange and 
departed quite content, amidst great laughter from 
the crowd. 



Ill 



' I 'HERE was probably no material difference' 
-■■ between these rough and simple people, who 
were so easily deceived even when they imagined 
themselves very sharp, and those earlier Florentines, 
the contemporaries of Cacciaguida, so greatly extolled 
by Dante. In every age it happens that the country- 
man who moves into the city and becomes a town 
dweller is anxious to conceal his origin, and therefore 
speaks scornfully of his companions of yesterday. 
Fiorenza had conquered and subjugated the sur- 
rounding country, compelling the nobles who owned 
or ruled the land to come within the city, where their 
overbearing pride sowed the seed of those discords 
which presently divided it into opposing factions. 
Meanwhile, however, in the midst of political discord 
there was ripening that social revolution which was 
destined to place the government of public affairs 
in the hands of the people and the guilds, to change 
the feudal and agricultural city into a city of mer- 
chants, of craftsmen, and of bankers, and to give 
the hegemony of the republic, with all its natural 
and legitimate consequences, to the Guild of Wool 

and the merchants of the Calimala. 

32 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 33 

For this phenomenon of attraction towards the city, 
which in a few years so marvellously altered the 
appearance of Fiorenza (the spread of buildings being 
no more than the outward sign and effect of the social 
change), Dante possessed neither sympathy nor under- 
standing. To quote the words of Carducci : " In 
the rapid extension of the Commune he beheld only 
anarchy ; in the exuberance of economic and com- 
mercial life he saw nothing but corruption ; in the 
striving of the plebs for the conquest of political 
rights he only saw repulsive peasants of Aguglione 
or of Signa, the sons of beggars who once implored 
alms in Semifonte, but who now shut the gates of 
his native town in the face of him who, born of 
pure Roman blood, had been obliged, out of love for 
his country, to inscribe himself in the Guild of the 
Apothecaries." For this reason the words he puts into 
the mouth of Cacciaguida in praise of the simple and 
dignified life of the good old times, and his furious 
invectives against the shameless Florentine women 
because they followed the new customs (fashions had 
not yet been invented) and wore dresses exposing 
their neck and shoulders, appear rather as opportune 
subjects for two magnificent outbursts of poetry than 
serious and impartial documents of historical truth. 
Paraphrasing the poet, Giovanni Villani wrote : " The 
citizens of Florence lived soberly and upon coarse 
food, spending but little money, and in their manners 
and customs were rough and rude. They dressed 
both themselves and their wives in coarse cloth, many 

3 



34 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

of the men going bare-legged without hose, and they 
all wore caps on their heads and boots on their feet. 
The Florentine women wore shoes without any 
ornaments, and most of them dressed in a narrow 
petticoat of the rough scarlet cloth of Ypres or Cam, 
with a belt and buckle in the ancient fashion, and a 
mantle lined with vaire, having a hood which they 
drew over their heads. The women of the lower 
orders wore the coarse green cloth of Cambrai made 
after the same manner. One hundred lire was the 
usual dowry given with a wife, and two or three 
hundred was considered magnificent at that time, 
and the maidens were usually twenty years old or 
more when they were married. Such were the gar- 
ments and customs of the Florentines of those days ; 
but they were of good faith and loyal unto each 
other and to the Commune, and, in spite of their 
rude life and their poverty, they achieved greater 
and more important things than are done in our 
times with more civilisation and more wealth." 

Even the chronicler is under the fascination of 
that immortal poem, of which his own feeble prose 
is but a faint and distant echo. It is, however, the 
historian's duty to investigate whether, in Caccia- 
guida's indictment, justice was not subordinated to 
sentiment, and whether all the censures of the social 
life of his fellow-citizens which Alighieri uttered 
through his lips were well-founded and deserved, 
or whether they were not rather inspired by that 
love of old things which resents all innovations it 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 35 

does not understand and the usefulness of which it 
cannot foresee. 

Profiting by the results of recent learned researches 
— especially of those made by the latest historian of 
Florence, Dr. Robert Davidsohn — and also by the 
records of ancient and trustworthy, if perhaps obscure, 
witnesses, let us look more closely into the details of 
social life during the time when the first and second 
circle of walls were as frames for that picture of 
ancient Florence drawn for us in the sixteenth canto 
of the Paradise^ by the masterly hand of that proud 
conservative of the White faction. 



IV 



T3ASSING through the streets heaped up with filth, 
-■■ crowded with domestic animals of every descrip- 
tion, and often flooded with water from dye-works 
and tanneries or with the blood of slaughtered beasts, 
let us penetrate into the family circle and note the 
manners and customs prevailing at that time. 

First of all it must be mentioned that all baptisms, 
even those from the suburbs, took place at the 
Baptistery of San Giovanni, and for every male child 
baptized there the priest put a black bean in a box 
kept for the purpose, and a white bean for every 
female, and in this way they kept count of all the 
births which occurred in the entire district. Brides 
always brought a dowry with them, which sometimes 
amounted to a substantial sum, and on the morning 
after the wedding the bridegroom presented the bride 
with the morgincapy or morning gift, which was fixed 
at fifty lire, or half the amount of the dowry when 
the latter was less than one hundred lire. In Floren- 
tine marriages they still followed the old Roman 

custom of giving the ring at the betrothal ceremony, 

36 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 37 

and not at the celebration before the priest. The 
father, or guardian, took the bride by the right hand 
and formally presented her to the bridegroom as his 
legitimate consort, the bridegroom at the same time 
placing the ring - upon her finger. It was the 
custom for the bridegroom to give the father, or 
guardian, a fur coat, usually of wolf-skin. The 
dowries increased steadily in value with the increase 
of public prosperity and the greater refinement of 
manners. Of sixty-six dowries noted between the 
years 1276 and 13 16, ten were of sums from fifty 
to two hundred lire, fourteen were of sums from 
two hundred to five hundred, fifteen were from five 
hundred to seven hundred, thirteen were from seven 
hundred to twelve hundred, whilst six dowries were 
of sums of from one hundred to three hundred florins, 
and eight were from three hundred to five hundred 
florins. And amongst those " splendid " dowries of 
two hundred lire was the one (oh, the irony of it !) 
brought by Gemma, daughter of Manetto Donati, to 
Dante Alighieri himself ! 

In course of time, marriages, with their character- 
istic customs which it would take too long to describe 
here, became occasions for the display of wealth and 
luxury — to such an extent, in fact, that in the four- 
teenth century it became necessary to draw up strict 
rules for regulating the expenditure. It was the same 
thing with funerals, which, after the lapse of so many 
centuries, preserve even to the present day in Florence 
much of their ancient theatrical display. Preparations 



38 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

for a funeral necessitated sweeping the street in front 
of the house whence it was to start, in order that 
benches might be placed round the door for the 
convenience of those attending the ceremony, and 
also to mark the house of mourning. The corpse 
was washed with hot water, usually perfumed with 
aromatic herbs and essences, and if the deceased 
belonged to one of the great families his death was 
announced by the public crier, who also named the 
street and house where he had died. The funeral 
took place the day following the death, and the body 
was generally carried on the shoulders of persons 
of its own rank, friends, neighbours, or relatives, who 
carried out all the last offices for the dead. Around 
the bier were gathered the women of the family, 
weeping aloud, with dishevelled hair, torn garments, 
and all the outward signs of real or feigned despair. 
Then followed the men, relatives, friends, or neigh- 
bours, who bore the dead to his parish church or to 
that wherein he had desired to be interred. The sad 
procession, which set out at the hour after sunset, 
was preceded and accompanied by the lugubrious 
tolling of the bells in the neighbourhood and lighted 
by lanterns, torches and candles, while psalms and 
dirges were chanted as it passed through the streets 
and squares to which, then as now, such a spectacle 
drew curious crowds. Houses where a death had 
taken place remained empty and widows went to live 
with their own families. For the good of the soul 
of the defunct, bread and other eatables were dis- 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 39 

tributed to the poor, and amongst the rich and 
liberal this act of charity was repeated on each 
anniversary of the death. 

The strictness and sobriety of the domestic life 
was still a relic of earlier simplicity. Although the 
high-priestess of the household, the woman was in 
subjection to the man and had but a small share in 
the government of the family. The man, the husband, 
the father, was supreme ruler, even keeping the keys 
of the street-door and of the money-box under his 
pillow at night. Inventories found amongst the 
archives show how poor in hangings, furniture and 
domestic implements were the dwellings of even the 
wealthiest families, and how hard and comfortless 
life must have been in those days. Nevertheless, side 
by side with this lack of the most necessary things, 
we find in the more noble and important houses great 
displays of gold and silver, of chiselled cups and 
salvers, precious stones, and valuable stuffs for making 
curtains to the wide beds wherein several persons often 
slept together, naked and without nightclothes, accord- 
ing to the custom of the time, although on the other 
hand the finest linen was spread on the tables laid 
out for the sumptuous banquets. There were two 
meals in the day : the comestio in the morning, not 
later than half-past eleven, and the ■prandium^ or 
supper, about four o'clock in the afternoon. As in 
country places to-day, bread was the chief article 
of food, and they used to flavour it with olive oil 
or make it into soup mixed with vegetables. Broths 



40 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and maccaroni were also generally eaten, and as a 
relish with the bread, a slice of fat was considered 
a delicacy. Pork and game were luxuries for the 
wealthy, or only to be eaten on occasions of great 
solemnity, and the common fare consisted chiefly of 
beans, chestnuts, and messes made of millet flour. 
Those strong stomachs enjoyed highly spiced dishes, 
but very little wine was drunk at meals. There were 
no plates, so wooden trenchers were used, one trencher 
serving for two persons ; and as forks were reserved for 
the use of the cooks and carvers, the guests used their 
fingers, washing them both before and after meals. 

That austere morality, however, which the upholders 
of the superiority of ancient times are always quoting 
as an example to later generations, in no wise cor- 
responded with the simple, even uncivilised, ways of 
outward life. In fact, there was a considerable 
amount of liberty in moral matters, if we are to 
believe Rustico di Filippo, commonly called Barbato, 
who was born in Florence about the year 1230, 
and who drew with coarse but biting humour such 
portraits as those of Madonna Leonessa, Madonna 
Tana, the youthful Chierma, Ser Pepo, the follower 
of women, Muscia, who addressed a curious list 
of his own virtues to women in general, and 
the sharp-witted wife of Aldobrandino who wanted 
to give back his shirt to the elegant youth Pilletto, 
because " Thou must never believe all that thou 
hearesti" 

A sad proof of the immorality of those times is 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 41 

afforded by the large number of illegitimate children, 
whose names are recorded and who shared in the 
patrimony of the family, and who, moreover, saw 
no shame in the fact that they were bastards. Thus 
the son of a certain Marriguardus was not afraid to 
call himself Bastardinus, and in the domestic chronicles 
of a later date we find the offspring of unlawful 
connections received into the household and treated 
as legitimate children. This was not all : early in 
the thirteenth century the Florentine Boncompagno 
compiled a large book of model letters, entitled 
Rota Veneris^ which might be interpreted as The 
Gallant Letter-Writer and which contained various 
specimens for the use of amorous nuns ! The 
licentiousness so vividly portrayed in the sonnets of 
Rustico di Filippo and other poetical writers was 
well matched by the love of luxury and ornament for 
which Dante afterwards so bitterly reproached the 
Florentine women, and which was only restrained by 
the sumptuary laws which the merchant husbands 
forced the Commune to promulgate. The respective 
wives of Bellincion Berti, of the Nerli, and the 
Vecchietti, who are quoted as bright examples by 
the poet, must have honestly deserved this supreme 
honour, for he does not mention any other women as 
possessing equal modesty. 

The desire to modify or supplement nature by 
means of art is so ancient and so true to human 
weakness that for any one to abstain from so doing 
must be looked upon as a genuine proof of saintliness, 



42 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

or else as mere hypocrisy. Even so earlv as the first 
half of the eleventh century, Pier Damiani wrote to 
a matron saying that, notwithstanding his advanced 
age, he looked with no favour on women who painted 
their faces and wore too many ornaments, and more- 
over he suspected a certain hermit of simulating with 
ointment or paint the interesting pallor of the ascetic. 
Boncompagno relates that even the young men spent 
much time with their combs and mirrors, and imitated 
the women in painting their faces white. The use of 
cosmetics and wigs even in the Fiorenza of the ancient 
boundary has been amply proved, and if the men 
wore horsehair to conceal their baldness, the women 
made use of it for various other purposes, and also 
wore wigs made of hair cut from the heads of corpses. 
The style of dress and the ideal of feminine beauty 
which we see represented by the slender figures and 
haggard faces in the frescoes and illuminations of that 
time are ridiculed in two curious sonnets by this same 
Rustico, wherein he scoffs at the fashion of procuring 
a thin, indeed almost emaciated body by all kinds 
of methods, from the tight-lacing which Cavalcanti 
admired in Mandetta of Toulouse to the starvation 
practised by Nita of Florence, who was assisted in 
her folly by her mother Donna Filippa and a relative 
named Donna Gemma. 

" Haste, Donna Gemma, bring the flour, 

Bring rare good wine and eggs new laid ! 
For Nita's teeth are set on edge, 
And her to cat yc must persuade ! 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 43 

Mark ye not how thin she is grown ? 

All persons marvel when they see ; 

On Donna Filippa blame is thrown 

By friends and kindred constantly. 
So light the fire and quickly fry 

Some dish, of which she now must eat ; 

Else sure of hunger she will die. 
Her petticoat that was so tight 

Would now make two, as ye perceive, 

So thin she is become and slight." 



The second sonnet continues in the same strain ; 
the writer insists that the women should make her 
some " good tarts," and inquires the reason why 
she has lost her appetite, when but a short time 
before she " did not keep her hands beneath the 
table " when there was a question of anything to eat. 

Fashion now began to dominate dress, and it is 
not surprising to read in Simone della Tosa that 
in the Lent of 1275, "by order of the Pope the 
women were deprived of their pearls and of certain 
ornaments made of birds, and were forbidden to wear 
gold and silver fringes, and their garments were not 
to drag behind for more than half a hraccio " ; that 
is to say, they were not to wear trains more than 
half a hraccio long. 

It is difficult to say which of the two vices was 
the worst — the luxury of the women or the unbridled 
love of gambling which degraded the men. Zara^ 
a game so well known and widespread that Dante 
drew an admirable parable from it, and biscaca were 
the causes of great losses, angry words, and lawsuits. 



44 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Boncompagno tells how he dissuaded a girl from 
listening to the flatteries of a youth who had gambled 
away all he possessed and had been reduced to a 
state of destitution in a few days through the game 
of zara alone. The gambling mania was so universal 
that in 1203 the servants of the Countess Guerriera, 
the daughter of Valdrada, who was making a long 
stay at the Convent of the nuns of Rosano, spent 
their whole time in throwing the dice. There was 
gambling during the war between Siena and Florence, 
and fifty years afterwards a witness remembered 
having seen the soldiers more intent upon their 
dice than upon their arms. 

It is not to be supposed that the good folk of 
olden days were not fond of a little amusement to 
distract their minds from the hardships of daily 
life, the dangers to which they were constantly 
exposed, the frequent brawls, and the fears of the 
world to come. Even at the time when only the 
first walls existed, professional players and jesters 
were well received and were always sure of a 
hearty welcome and a place at the well-spread table. 
Musicians and singers performed on the harp, viola, 
lyre, guitar, or on an instrument similar to the latter, 
called the rota^ and these airs, songs, and refrains, crude 
at first, gradually acquired more grace of form and 
elegance of execution with the increasing refinement 
of art. This was seen later on when, in the fragrant 
Maytime of 1283, for the celebration of the Feast 
of St. John there was formed in the district of Santa 




H « 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 45 

Felicita a company numbering over a thousand men, 
all dressed in white and led by one who was called 
the Lord of Love. The sole aim of this company 
was the pursuit of pleasure ; they organised games, 
amusements, and dances in which ladies and knights, 
and even the lower people, took part ; they paraded 
the town " blowing trumpets and other instruments 
in the joy of their hearts, and feasted together at 
banquets, dinners and suppers." The description 
might almost fit one of those scenes which were 
afterwards painted on the great chests wherein brides 
carried their clothes to their new homes, scenes 
where, in the words of the poet Folgore of San 
Geminiano, 



. . . spears shall split, and fruit go flying up 
In merry counterchange for wreaths that drop 

From balconies and casements far above ; 
And tender damsels with young men and youths 
Shall kiss together on the cheeks and mouths ; 

And every day be glad with joyful love." ^ 



It was during this May in Florence that the youth- 
ful Dante is said to have composed the beautiful 
ballad in which he says that the remembrance of a 
garland he had once seen presented to a lady causes 
him to sigh at the sight of any flower. 

To return to the subject of the ancient companies, 
however. These were associations formed solely for 

* Translation by D. G. Rossetti. 



46 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

pleasure, possessing rules in the Italian tongue and 
properly drawn up by notaries, and they were called 
the companies of the Falcons, the Lions, the Round 
Table, and so forth. 

Being situated upon the high-road which led from 
the north to Rome and passed over the Arno bridge, 
Florence was of necessity visited by great numbers of 
strangers. Li order to accommodate the pilgrims and 
wayfarers from overseas and beyond the Alps, almost 
every church and convent had a hospice attached to 
it ; there were, however, numerous genuine inns and 
taverns, of which the earliest mention is found in a 
document of the year 1065. 

It was assuredly to their frequent contact with 
strangers that the Florentines owed that spirit of 
adventure which impelled them to leave their own 
country in search of wealth and fortune and taught 
them how to become daring speculators and usurers. 
They had no fear of long journeys ; for the sake 
of going to France they left their wives alone at 
home, and from the foreign land, where the Italian 
colony formed a corporation governed by a captain- 
general elected by itself, they exported to their native 
land wool and rough cloths, which they then sub- 
sequently re-imported, dyed and dressed with that 
perfection of which Calimala ^ jealously held the 
secret. France was the America, the California of 
those times, and whoever returned thence with a 

^ The street chiefly inhabited by wool merchants. 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 47 

full purse put on airs of great pride, like that Neri 
Picciolino described by Cecco Angiolieri : — 

"When Neri Picciolin came back from France 
He was so full pf florins and pride 
That he looked upon men as poor little mice 
And each he did mock and deride. 

He frequently cried, ' Now may evil befall 
All my neighbours, for seen face to face 
With me, they appear but so mean and so small 
That their friendship will bring me disgrace.' 

Soon this conduct was cause, I have heard, 
That no neighbour, howe'er mean and low. 
But scorned to speak him a word. 

And I'll wager my heart for a crown 
That before eight months had gone by, 
He'd have thanked for a crust flung him down." 

The industry in textile fabrics, which was said to 
have been introduced by the Umiliati friars, existed 
since the year 1062 ; and a very profitable industry 
it must always have been, if even in the thirteenth 
century Florence bore the reputation of being one 
of the principal centres. 

Beside the wool trade, whose Guild statutes prove 
the importance of that corporation and whose sign, 
a lamb, was as well known as the lily of the city, the 
prosperity of the citizens was largely due to the Arte 
del Cambio, or the Exchange ; for Florentine money- 
lenders and bankers were dispersed throughout the whole 
world, practising their lucrative trade of lending and 
changing money, and, moreover, with such conditions 
and interest as to cause themselves to be anathematised 



48 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

by preachers and condemned by the Church. Usury 
was not only a vice practised by the laity, but by 
the clergy as well. It is on record that between 
the years 1016 and 12 10, in thirty Florentine loan 
banks (of which two were kept by priests and three 
by convents), the usual interest varied from 14^ to 
25 per cent. Interest at 25 per cent, eventually 
became the customary rate, although sometimes 30, 45, 
50, and even 66^ per cent, was charged at that period. 
Florence was the great market where every kind of 
money was current, which fact alone gives some idea 
of the extent of her traffic. Beside the solidus worth 
twelve denariy or pence, and the libra worth twenty 
soldiy a variety of foreign money was current in the 
market ; there was the German imperialiy there was 
Turkish money, there was the local coinage of the 
counts of that land of Champagne whither Florentines 
flocked several times a year to attend the famous 
fairs, there were English sovereigns, and the special 
currency of the towns of Tours and Bologna, and 
the gold coins of the Greek Empire called byzantSy 
or byzantines. 

Far from excluding culture, commerce did much 
to promote it, and we find reassuring proofs of the 
studies pursued in Florence at that period. As early 
as the first half of the twelfth century there was 
a law school, and early in the thirteenth century 
there were schools of the liberal arts situated near 
the Canonry. Even what is now called elementary 
instruction was not entirely neglected, for in many 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 49 

contracts where the autograph signature is missing, 
the reason for the omission is stated to be weakness 
of sight or some other defect, but never ignorance. 
For women the case was different, however, especially 
for those of the noble orders. In 1067 Gisla dei 
Firidolfi declared that she was unable to sign her 
name because she was a " wealthy and noble matron," 
and she did not learn to write even when she became 
abbess of San Pier Maggiore. 

Meanwhile the Tuscan idiom, the beautiful language 
of the people, had been growing gradually purer and 
more definite, freeing itself from its Germanic elements 
and its Latin form. The childish folk-songs and 
snatches learnt from the wandering singers were only 
the forerunners of the popular subjects alluded to by 
Dioneo in the fifth day of the Decameron, and the 
Florentine mothers were already elaborating those 
legends of the " Trojans of Fiesole and of Rome " 
and of the Knights of the Round Table which were 
afterwards taken down in writing. Documents and 
legal parchments of that day contain names and 
surnames which are distinctly Italian. In 1105 a 
certain Fiorentino is mentioned as husband of a lady 
named Italia, with whom he lived according to the 
Longobardic law, and amongst other papers are found 
such names as Piccolino, Malabranca, Malipiedi, Sordo, 
Cieco, Boccaccio, Occhio di Ferro, Bracciaforte, Grullo, 
Trincavino, Malandrino, Scandalizzo, Cantapoco, 
Buongiorno, and other similar appellations descriptive 
of the persons who bore them. 

4 



50 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The most curious thing, however, is to find certain 
peculiarities and certain defects of the modern 
Florentine tongue reproduced in these ancient docu- 
ments as though in a phonograph, defects such as 
the common ones of aspirating the c and changing 
the / into an r. The Florentines of the year looo 
also pronounced Sihelmus^ Mihael^ vohatus and 
Marregolatus for Malregolatus^ vocatus^ Micael and 
Sichelmus^ whence we must conclude that the vice 
is so ancient that it is useless to hope it will ever be 
corrected ! 

Of those strong figures who, by reason of their 
fiery passions or ardent spirits, stand forth promi- 
nently in the pages of the domestic chronicles, I 
have elsewhere in this volume given some idea in 
types like Buonaccorso di Piero or Paolo di Ser 
Pace di Certaldo. Therefore it is not my purpose 
here to give any fuller account of the " ancient 
people " of Florence, that strong race, sober, enduring, 
strict and rude, which struggled successfully through 
those times of storm and stress. Nor shall I describe 
their politics, the eternal conflicts between Guelph 
and Ghibelline, or the disaster which overtook the 
latter when they attempted to carry out Farinata's 
fierce proposal to " wipe out Florence," or even try to 
tell how the new Government was formed with that 
Guelph party which was a State within the State 
and which led eventually to the popular form of 
government under the Priori of the various Guilds. 



FLORENCE WITHIN HER BOUNDARY 51 

All this belongs to the external history of Florence, 
which is wholly made up of wars and peace-makings, 
of strife between princes, families, and people, with 
the periodical descents upon the city of Imperial 
envoys and the intervention of Papal pacificators. 
Concerning all these things many learned volumes 
have been written, wherein, however, to speak 
frankly, we have none of us found that which 
forms the true, the irresistible attraction of the past, 
that romance of life lived, those facts and details 
which, in a single sentence or anecdote, explain the 
secret of a whole age or people better than do all 
the pages historians and philosophers ever wrote. 

The librarian of Napoleon III., Prosper Merimee, 
confessed " Je n'aime de I'histoire que les anecdotes." 
I may be forgiven, therefore, if I follow at a very 
respectful distance in the footsteps of the famous 
author of Carmen and give you only familiar 
details and homely anecdotes of Florence as she was 
before the great era of Dante, of Giotto, and of 
Arnolfo. 

Let us turn our bark and go back down the stream 
of time to the point whence we set out, for in that 
wild forest where it has its source we can neither 
move nor live. We cannot breathe amidst those 
clinging brambles, those dark and impenetrable woods 
infested by wild beasts, because we are not upheld 
by that relentless combativeness which strengthened 
our ancestors in the defence of their bodies, their 
families, and their friends. 



52 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

We are as navigators upon a vast ocean of which 
we know not the farther shore, for, like the Fata 
Morgana, it recedes ever from before our gaze. But 
we do not, like Dante, turn to the past to seek for 
examples, omens, and consolations in the conquest 
of truth and conscience ; with clear and steady eyes 
we look forward to the future, to the light of our 
ideals which brightens on the far horizon with the 
glory and the beauty of a dream. And to this bright 
future of our hopes we turn our faces, seeking there 
the courage which shall strengthen our hearts alike 
to fight and to endure. 



THE MIND AND MANNERS OF A 
FLORENTINE MERCHANT OF 
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 



THE MIND AND MANNERS OF A FLOREN- 
TINE MERCHANT OF THE FOUR- 
TEENTH CENTURY 

TN the Riccardiana Library of Florence — that city 
^ not only of art and literature, but also of 
mediseval crafts and commerce — there is preserved a 
quaint document called by its author a Book of 
Good Examples and Good Manners. It is written 
by a Florentine of the fourteenth century, and 
affords more than a passing glimpse into the 
lives of those early Italian merchants, when they 
had not yet made their fortunes, but were still 
labouring in their shops and warehouses, striving 
for the achievement of riches and nobility for their 
families. In the old Florentines of the twelfth to 
fourteenth centuries we find prototypes of the modern 
merchants, and may even study them at a very early 
period, when they laboured in tiny shops and the 
first hardly-earned savings represented a hope rather 
than a reality. But even in those primitive days we 
find abundant evidence of that natural courtesy and 
love of refinement and beauty which led the early 

55 



56 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

merchants to spend the first money they could spare 
upon the beautifying of their houses and gardens, 
the collecting and ordering, for pure love of art, 
of pictures and illuminations and manuscripts, thus 
forming the nucleus of many a famous library. 
And not only upon business matters has this old 
Florentine left his opinions and advice ; spiritual 
welfare, the care of the body, personal security, 
family, social relations, civil obligations, all have their 
share of his serious consideration. 

This old manuscript of the Riccardiana Library 
was originally bound in boards and bears upon its 
second cover the arms of its author. Paolo, son 
of Messer Pace of Certaldo, who wrote it with 
his own hand in a somewhat clumsy caligraphy, 
has left us a medley of valuable advice upon matters 
of morals and practical life, proverbs and notable 
sayings, put together without any attempt at classi- 
fication and drawn partly from traditional sources 
and partly from his own observation of contemporary 
manners and customs. His father. Pace, son of 
Messer Jacopo of Certaldo, doctor of laws, was 
one of the Priori in 1315-16 and again in 1318-19 ; 
in 13 19 he went as ambassador to Siena, was again 
one of the Priori in 1322-23, and after holding 
other posts of honour, was eventually Gonfaloniere 
in 1337. Our Paolo, whether he was actually a 
merchant or not, certainly possessed the foresight, 
the prudence, and sometimes even the craftiness of 
one ! Moreover at that period all Florentine citizens 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 57 

were obliged to belong to one of the Guilds, and 
were, both nominally and by inclination, merchants, 
whatever other trade or profession they may have 
followed as well. We know that one of his 
descendants was an apothecary, by name Cristofano 
di Fuccio, and that he greatly cherished the Examples 
of his great-great-grandfather, as is proved by a de- 
claration which he appended to the manuscript in a 
handwriting of the fifteenth century. I have had 
neither time nor desire to make further researches 
into the history of Paolo and his family ; my only 
object is to call forth from the pages, yellow with 
age, of the Riccardiana manuscript a sufficiently vivid 
presentment of the old Florentine to make us realise 
once more the truth of the saying that all the world 
is kin. 

Thus it begins : 

" In the name of God. In this book will we write 
down many good examples and good customs, and 
good proverbs and good instructions; wherefore, my 
son or my brother, or my dear friend, neighbour, or 
companion, or whoever thou art who readest this 
book, hearken well and understand that which thou 
shalt find written in this book and put it into action ; 
and much good and honour shalt thou derive there- 
from, both for body and soul." 

As is seen from the introduction, the book has a 
moral intention, not differing in this respect from 
many others which have been written since. But 
for us the chief and most interesting thing is to 



58 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

discover, amongst all the precepts drawn from or 
suggested by ecclesiastical tradition, those which were 
directly inspired by personal experience and which 
reveal some hidden inclination in those ancient souls, 
some rebellious instinct, some curious aspect of a 
life differing so widely from our own, which is 
nevertheless descended from it. Paolo di Ser Pace 
has written with spirit, but without any prearranged 
order or that economy which is found in works of 
greater literary elaboration ; but it is all the better 
for that, as the spontaneity and sincerity of thought 
and expression are not marred by any preoccupations 
of style, and the uncertain and often incorrect writing 
is proof of the abundance of the ideas that came 
too quickly for the pen to follow. Thus within 
these rough pages we find the picture of the good 
Florentine of the fourteenth century, who, either in 
his shop or in a chamber of his own house, adds 
from time to time another page of counsel or example 
to those he is preparing to leave to his dear ones, 
rendering immortal his own memory in the minds 
of those who were destined to read his pages and 
meditate upon the wisdom they contained. This 
longing to go down to posterity which armed the 
pens of the most obscure 'and unknown amongst 
the ancient writers is a sufficiently strange phenome- 
non. Monuments, statues and marbles fall into decay, 
neither stone nor bronze can resist the ravages of 
time, yet a fragile scrap of paper has survived to 
unveil to us the existence of a long- dead forefather. 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 59 

whose identity has been lost in the darkness of 
centuries, but whose mind was inflamed not with 
the hope only, but almost with the certainty, of being 
remembered by future generations. In perusing the 
old manuscript we ' seem to feel the pulsations of 
a living hand moving over it in obedience to the 
dictates of the mind ; we seem to hear the faint voice 
of a distant soul revealing to us its being, its intimate 
life, and holding out to us imploring hands of friend- 
ship after long centuries of silence and neglect. But 
these are idle fancies, and we had better keep strictly 
to our facts, for Paolo di Ser Pace threatens to be 
a prolix and long-winded gossip ! 

Let us begin with the Proverbs, amongst which 
there are some strange sayings which deserve to be 
recorded. Many are in rhyme which cannot be 
exactly translated, and their quaint crispness is 
therefore lost in the English rendering. For in- 
stance : 

" Hearken and behold and keep silent if thou 
wouldst live in peace. 

"It is better to stand upright by the side of a 
good man until thy legs ache than to sit upon a 
bench by the side of a wicked man. 

•' Like unto the body without a soul is the man 
without a friend. 

" Thou wilt more often repent having spoken 
than having kept silence. 

*' Speak not of those who are present. 

" Be not so bitter that every man spitteth thee 



6o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

out of his mouth, nor yet so sweet that every man 
sucketh thee dry. 

" It is good to live in strange cities, but bad to 
die there." 

And many others could we mention of these sayings 
scattered here and there amongst moral and religious 
warnings, which, as is natural, occur the most fre- 
quently. For the safety of their souls and their 
duty towards God were the most important things 
in the eyes of these simple and valiant men, who, 
notwithstanding the preoccupations of their business 
and the necessity of protecting themselves against 
enemies and rivals, kept ever in mind the urgency 
of their own spiritual advancement. But they thought 
of it and fulfilled their religious duties without being 
in any way bigots : " Go to church upon Feast Days, 
and upon the other days when thou canst safely and 
properly leave thy shop or thy warehouse." More- 
over, there is a certain use in church-going. " Fre- 
quent the preachers, for of them wilt thou learn 
many good examples and manners." It was also 
a duty to " go and visit the sick, to encourage and 
comfort them, and likewise to watch them die, 
that thou may est take an example therefrom ; and 
likewise must thou go and see men executed, not 
for the pleasure of beholding them killed, but in 
order that they may be examples unto thee." Such 
brutal lessons were necessary for the instilling of 
good into the minds of these still rude and un- 
civilised men ; nowadays morality is inculcated by 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 6i 

the flowery descriptions in the police records and 
daily papers. 

For the mortification of the flesh the good Paolo 
recommends fasting. 

*' Make it thy custom to fast upon Saturday in 
honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, and take heed 
that upon that day thou sinnest not, for it is not 
sufficient to fast only from food, that is, from the 
sin of gluttony, but thou must fast also from all 
the seven mortal sins." 

Then he advocates almsgiving : 

" And almsgiving consisteth not only in giving 
money, or bread, or shelter for God's sake, but 
there is also great charity in supporting widows 
and children and orphans, in making peace, in 
taking men out of prison. And these are things 
which wipe out sin, together with confession and 
repentance. 

" Take heed that thou givest offence to none ; never- 
theless, if thou dost give offence, see that thou dost 
not show thyself glad because of that which thou 
hast done, nor of that which thy son or thy kinsman 
hath done, because those persons may forget the 
hurt done unto them, but they will never forget 
the gladness thou didst show over it, and it will 
prevent any chance of reconciliation." 

He bids his readers overcome " the sin of envy, 
by thinking of those who are worse off in this world, 
some because of greater poverty, some because of 
more sickness, some because they have fewer kindred, 



62 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

some by reason of less understanding, and some 
because they are in a lower position." The sins of 
luxury and gluttony are to be similarly avoided ; 
but of all vices the worst is pride, because from 
that " descend all the others." Whilst on this 
subject it occurs to him *' to give a good example." 

" Compare this life of ours unto a great cask of 
wine ; there cometh one every day for a cup of wine, 
and he poureth in a cup of water in place of the wine 
he hath taken out ; and this he doth until the cask, 
which at first was full of good wine, becometh full 
of water. And thus do we little by little lose our 
natural heat, and in time become feeble and die of 
ourselves without any other cause ; and there can 
help thee neither money, nor kindred, nor friends, 
nor powers, nor good eating, nor any other worldly 
thing ; wherefore mayest thou see how this our pride 
doth wax feeble of its own self ! " 

Not less severe is Paolo against those who will 
not forgive injury and meditate revenge — " because 
thou canst hardly ever carry out thy vengeance 
entirely ; thou dost either too much or too little. 
If thou dost too much thou offendest thine enemy 
and he hateth thee, and people speak of it and say 
that thou hast acted badly ; and if thou dost too 
little the people say, ' He had done better not to 
have put himself to the proof than to have done it 
to his shame.' So that thou must always be the one 
who pardoneth if thou wouldst be the victor." 

But it would take too long if we were to repeat here 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 63 

all the good and wise things which the merchant- 
moralist offers as counsel for the good of the soul 
and peaceful living. In his mouth the precepts acquire 
a greater practical value, inasmuch as they leave the 
field of abstract ethics to descend to earth and adapt 
themselves to the needs of daily life. And life in 
those times was fraught with constant dangers ; men 
had to protect themselves against many more things 
than at present, and treachery and threats were serious 
and frequent. The Commune troubled itself but 
little about the individual safety of its citizens, who 
had usually to take justice and vengeance into their 
own hands, much as though lynch-law had already 
been invented then. The city at that period was 
of small area and the houses were huddled together 
one against the other, consequently there were frequent 
and terrible fires, on account of which they adopted 
many precautions useful still to-day : 

" Keep always ready in thine house twelve large 
sacks, they are useful for removing thy goods when 
there is a fire in the neighbourhood, or near thee, 
or in thine own house. Keep always ready also a 
hempen rope, long enough to reach from the roof 
unto the earth, so that thou mayest let thyself down 
from any window of thine house to the ground 
if there should be a fire ; but forget not to keep it 
locked within a chest, in order that neither a servant 
nor any of thy famjly may use it without thee or 
without thy leave. Make it always thy custom to see 
the lights and the fire in the house extinguished, and 



64 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

be thou always the last to go to bed in thine house, and 
search the house for lights or fire, and see that the door 
is securely fastened, and likewise the windows. Search 
also the cellar and see that the casks are well stopped, 
and the door and windows fastened, the fire covered, 
and the lights extinguished ; then go thou to bed and 
sleep as long as thou hast need." 

But now let us penetrate a little further into the 
privacy of that simple life of the fourteenth 
century : 

" Beware of going out of thine house at night ; 
but if thou art obliged to go forth, then take with 
thee a trusty companion, and a large and good 
light. 

" If thou goest into any dangerous place, go without 
telling any person where thou art going. In like 
manner, if thou goest to Siena, say that thou art 
going to Lucca, and thou wilt be safe from evil 
persons. 

" Never lend thy weapon unto any person who may 
ask it of thee, and for two reasons — firstly, because 
thou knowest not what he will do with it ; and 
secondly, because thou knowest not how soon thou 
mayest have need of it thyself. 

" Always cause the .door ' of thine house to be 
locked at night, in order that during the night none 
may go forth and none may enter into thine house 
without thy knowledge, which thing is too great 
a danger ; and, most especially, if thou hast any 
dispute, keep the key of the street-door in thine 




THE CORNCHANDLER IN HIS SHOP. 
(From an early XIV. century MS. in the Latircntian Library.) 

[To face pa!<e 65. 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 65 

own chamber at night, and lock it always day and 
night when thou sleepest." 

It is needful to be well provided with the necessaries 
of life, Paolo says : 

" There are certain years when there is great famine 
and scarcity [tinned meats were not then invented !] 
wherefore remember always, if thou canst do it, 
to furnish thine house with corn sufficient for two 
years, and if thou canst not get corn, then take 
some other grain that can be eaten ; and if thou 
canst not get sufficient for two years, get at least 
enough for a year and a half, and buy always in good 
time ; and do the same thing with oil, in order that 
when the time of scarcity cometh thou mayest not 
be without these two things in the house ; for the 
other things thou must do as best thou canst ; and see 
that thou hast always a cask of vinegar. 

*' Be not ready to run forth from the house when- 
ever there is a noise without, but stay in thine house 
and feign to know nothing, and thus shalt thou 
escape dispute and vexation and wilt keep thy person 
in safety." 

Then there is advice upon the care of the person 
and matters of health which reveal the simplicity 
and uncivilised ways of our forefathers : 

" Arise early in the morning, even before daybreak, 
if thou canst, and perform thy duties in the house. 
It is better and more healthy to arise early than to 
stay up late at night. But although thou risest very 
early, do not leave the house until thou hearest that 

5 



66 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

the neighbours and artisans have opened their houses 
and shops ; and make thou the sign of the Cross 
and go to church, and always repeat a short prayer 
at the door before thou goest forth out of the house. 
Thou must only eat twice a day, in the morning at 
dinner and in the evening at supper, and never drink 
except at meal-times, and if thou dost this thou wilt 
keep in good health. Moreover, it is the life for a 
man, and eating every hour is the life for a beast. 
Drink as little as thou canst, twice at each meal-time ; 
if many wines are placed before thee, choose one 
that is good and drink of that until it is finished, 
and drink it mixed with water. When thou arisest 
in the morning always wash thy hands and thy face 
before thou leavest the house, and likewise before 
thou sittest down to table to dine, to break thy fast, 
or to sup ; and also, when thou risest from table 
after dinner or supper, wash thy hands and thy mouth 
and thy teeth, and thus wilt thou be clean ; and like- 
wise is it good manners." 

On matters of family life we find very valuable 
advice ! The expectant mother must '' take heed that 
she do not fatigue herself or drink unmixed wine, 
and she must have a care that she do not sit or lie 
upon the ground either in summer or in winter. 
If she desireth to eat anything, let her have it tem- 
perately and with descretion." The child " must 
be kept clean and warm, and it must be often looked 
at and examined limb by limb." During the first 
year of its life the child is to have nothing but 




A CRAFTSMAN OF THE SILK GUILD. 

{From (I iiiaiiiiscript of ilic Ricoardi Libmry.') 



[To face fage 67 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 67 

mother's milk, and after that it may have other things 
little by little, together with milk ; when it is six 
or seven years old it must be taught to read, and then 
it must begin to learn the trade it most prefers. Paolo 
has but little faith in nurses ; he says : 

"See that the nurse is wise and honest and of 
good manners, and that she be not given to drinking 
or drunkenness, for children do often drink in the 
nurse's nature together with her milk. And see 
that she doth not give the child the milk of goats 
or sheep or asses, or other beast to drink, for the 
boy or girl who is nourished upon the milk of a 
beast hath not a perfect understanding, but seemeth 
always to have a vain and foolish countenance and 
to be without full powers of reasoning." 

It would be interesting to know if the foolishness 
and vanity with which we come into daily contact 
is the result of artificial feeding ! 

*' The girls shalt thou dress well ; do not let them 
grow too fat, and teach them to perform all the 
work of the household. That is, to make bread, 
wash the body, sift grain, to cook, to wash linen 
and make beds, to spin and sew, to weave French 
purses or to embroider in silk with the needle, to 
cut out garments in linen and cloth, to put new 
feet upon the hose, and all suchlike things ; so that 
when they marry it may not be said of them that 
they come out of the woods." 

He appears to have had no very high opinion of 
women : 



68 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

*' Woman is a light thing and vain, wherefore she 
is in great peril when she hath no husband. Ir 
thou hast women in thine house, keep them shut 
up as much as possible, and return thou home very 
often and keep them in fear and trembling ; and 
take heed that they have always something to do 
in the house, which they must never neglect, for an 
idle man or woman is in great danger." 

Nevertheless, in certain circumstances our good man 
is indulgent enough, but perhaps with an ulterior 
motive : " If thou hast maidens and young women in 
thine house, and if, as often happeneth, some of them 
are gazed upon by young men, do not thou be moved 
to fury or anger against those young men." When 
it is a question of disposing of the goods it is wise not 
to be too particular ! 

In the contrary case, however, one must keep one's 
eyes open. 

" When thou takest a wife have a care that she is 
born of a good father and a good mother, and that her 
grandmother is of good repute, for it doth not often 
happen that when the mother of a damsel is good and 
likewise her grandmother, that the damsel herself is 
bad. Take great heed that the wife thou choosest is 
not born of a family where there is sickness, or con- 
sumption, or scrofula, or madness, or scurvy, or gout, 
for it often happeneth that the children who are born 
of her have all or some of these faults or blemishes ! " 

But besides questions of pathological heredity, the 
man must pay attention to the wife's appearance, 







A CRAFTSMAN OF THE SILK GUILD. 
(Fioiii a iiianuAiij-t of the Riccardi Libvary.) 



ITo face page 6g. 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 69 

manners, and morals : *' See that thou choosest a 
woman of wisdom and a fine figure, and thou shalt 
have fine children of her, and if she is wise she will be 
good." Moralists in general are against the marrying 
of widows, and neither does Paolo look upon them 
with a favourable eye : 

" If thou art able, beware of taking a widow woman 
for thy wife, because thou wilt never be able to satisfy 
her, and every time that thou refusest her anything she 
may ask of thee she will say, ' My other husband did 
not treat me thus ! ' Yet truly, if thou hast already 
had another wife thou mayest take her with greater 
safety, and if she saith, ' My other husband did not 
treat me thus,' or 'Blessed be the soul of So-and-so,' 
thou canst reply, ' Blessed be the soul of Madonna 
So-an-so, who did not cause me this tribulation every 
day ! ' And if it is thy misfortune to be obliged to 
marry a second time, see that thy second wife is not 
better born than was the first, so that she may not 
be able to say unto thee, ' It is more proper for me 
than it was for her, because I am born of a greater 
family and of more honourable parentage.' " 

And if thou hast sons, " teach them divers trades 
and not all the same, because they cannot be all of the 
same mind. Inquire of them, each one for himself, 
which trade or calling he desireth to follow, then put 
him to that trade and he will become a far better 
master than if thou didst put him to one of thine 
own choosing. 

"If thou desirest that thy sons should be citizens 



70 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

or inhabitants of any special country, town, or city, 
send them that they may be brought up and grow up 
there, and there learn their trade or business. And 
say not, ' I will send him as a child into France, and 
there he shall grow up and learn to trade with the 
merchandise of France.' Because when he is thirty 
years old or thereabouts, and returneth to live in 
Florence, he will not be a good master, nor will he 
be a clever and experienced merchant in Florence as 
he was in France ; because, having grown up there 
and having many friends there, his mind is still 
always in France. And at everything contrary which 
happeneth to him in Florence, he will say, ' If I had 
been in France this would not have happened unto 
me ! ' And it is the same thing with other countries. 
Nevertheless, it is sometimes necessary to go into 
strange lands. 

" If thou hast a son who, in thine opinion, is not 
doing well in thy country, place him immediately with 
a merchant who will send him into another country. 
Or send him unto some dear friend of thine ; then 
he will forget the habits of his own country and will 
form new habits, and perchance he will amend his 
ways and do well. There is nothing else to be done, 
because if he remained with thee he would never 
change his ways." 

Our good merchant also occupied himself with 
what we should nowadays call social relations : 

" Take heed to consort always with good persons, 
and with men who are older than thee, and whom 




1^^ 



0^ m\ 



Li- 




-J i 

-^^ .. J 



SCENE IN CORN MARKET, FLORENCE. 
{Frcm an early XIV. Century MS. in the Lanrcntian Library.) 



[To face page 71. 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 71 

thou believest to be wiser and better than thyself; 
and consort always with those who are richer and 
greater than thou art, and with men of good manners. 
Beware of speaking evil of thy friend or companion 
or neighbour, or of Xhy Commune, because when thou 
thinkest to speak evil of those with whom thou art 
accustomed to consort, thou speakest evil of thine own 
self; wherefore must thou never have dealings with 
persons who are evil or vicious, nor frequent their 
company. 

"Evil speaking is one of the great sins, and it is 
irremediable, because if thou wouldst be forgiven 
thou must give back his good repute unto him from 
whom thou hast taken it away. And how canst thou 
render it him again, for thou hast spoken ill of him 
unto twenty persons, and those twenty persons have 
repeated it unto an hundred, and those hundred will 
speak ill of him unto a thousand, and thus is evil 
repute spread about amongst many. And even if 
thou shouldst say, * I will now speak good of him,' 
the good will not come unto the ears of all those 
who heard the evil." 

Then Paolo gives further moral directions regarding 
gambling, also on the subject of the " women belong- 
ing to others," of whom he says, " bethink thee that 
they are all made after one fashion and therefore do 
not love one more than another " ; benefits bestowed 
should be esteemed but little and never remembered or 
regretted ; of the maltolto, or money unduly obtained, 
he says, " beware of taking it, in order that thou 



72 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

mayest not have to render it again, which would seem 
too hard for thee." In a civil community like that 
of Florence in those days, in which it was necessary to 
be suspicious of everything, it was imperative to 
cultivate habits of caution. To trust any one who has 
already deceived you is folly and " simplicity," where- 
fore, " beware of trusting a second time him who hath 
already deceived thee once ; for there is a saying of 
a certain wise man which saith, ' whosoever cheateth 
thee once, God will curse him ; whosoever cheateth 
thee twice, God will curse him and thee ; but if thou 
art cheated thrice, God will curse thee alone.' " And 
in order not to find oneself in a position to be 
obliged to repeat this bitter saying " it is safer to 
keep silence thyself than to pray another to keep 
silence ; wherefore take heed never to tell thy secret 
unto another, because thus thou becomest the servant 
of him whom thou prayest that he will not reveal the 
secret thou hast told unto him." 

But now let us come to the more practical advice 
which concerns business matters and merchandise. 

The first maxim we come across is rather of an 
egoistical order, but it has the merit of being as 
sincere as though it came out of an American 
book ! ** Labour always rather for thyself than for 
others," to which our moralist adds : 

'* A very fine and great thing it is to understand 
how to earn money, but a finer and greater thing is it 
to understand how to spend it with discretion and 
when it is needful, and always to know how to keep 




c 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 73 

and guard that which hath been left thee by thy father 
or other kindred. Money which a man hath not 
earned is more quickly spent than that which he hath 
earned with the sweat of his brow and with labour and 
care." 

With regard to expenses he gives minute and 
valuable advice : 

" Give good heed to the small sums thou spendest 
out of the house, for it is they which empty the purse 
and consume wealth, and they go on continually. And 
do not buy all the good victuals which thou seest, for 
the house is like a wolf, the more thou givest it the 
more doth it devour. 

" When thou dost establish a shop or a warehouse 
in thine own country or in a foreign country, see that 
thou choosest a house in the best part of the town, 
if thou canst obtain it. And see also that the work- 
men thou takest are the best and most expert that are 
to be had in the trade thou wouldst follow ; and look 
not to the cost, for neither the hire of a good house 
nor the wage of a good workman ever was dear. 
Thou shalt not delight in going to law ; do thou 
rather accept less from him who oweth thee without 
a lawsuit than obtain more with a lawsuit. When 
thou makest an agreement of any kind, take a book 
and write down in it the day whereon the agreement 
is made, and the notary who maketh it, and the 
witnesses, and the reason and with whom it is made, 
so that if thou or thy children have need of it they 
may find it ready. Always have thy last will ready 



74 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

written, and if it happeneth that thou desirest to add 
to it, or to erase somewhat, then make thou another 
will and annul the first." 

Whilst on the subject of wills our Paolo relates a 
delightful story, which would appeal even to an 
American merchant of to-day ; it is an example^ which 
he entitles, " The Will of Giovanni Cavazza " : 

"This Giovanni Cavazza was a wealthy man who 
had two daughters, and when they were of a marriage- 
able age he married them to two noble youths and 
gave to each one a large dowry. Now, having given 
all that he possessed unto his sons-in-law, Giovanni 
was left poor, but this was not known either unto his 
sons-in-law or his daughters. And as he desired to live 
honourably, as he had been used to do all his life, 
he spake thus unto his sons-in-law and his daughters : 
' I have now grown old and have but a short while 
to live, wherefore I must make my will.' And he 
procured a strong chest with two locks and placed 
inside it a very large bar of iron and a writing which 
said, ' I'his is the will of Giovanni Cavazza ; he who 
unto others doth give himself and all^ by this rod of iron 
shall he be killed withal.' And he locked the chest 
very carefully with two keys, and one he gave unto the 
Brothers Minor and the other he gave unto the Preach- 
ing Friars (the Franciscans and the Dominicans), say- 
ing unto them, ' Ye shall not give these keys unto 
any person so long as I shall live ; after my death give 
them unto So-and-so, my sons-in-law, because I desire 
that they should be my heirs and should inherit after 




THE CORN MARKET OF OR SAN MICHELE. 
{From ail caily XIV. Ccntuiy -l/S. /;; llic Lauicnliaii Library.) 



[To faci' pai^c 75. 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 75 

me that which I have reserved for myself in case I 
should fall into distress.' Then he went unto one 
who was an old and dear friend and said unto him, 
* Lend me two gold florins.' And he lent them. 
Then Giovanni Cavazza invited his daughters and his 
sons-in-law to dinner ; and after they had eaten he said 
unto them, * Wait ye for me here in the hall,' and he 
shut himself up in his chamber. And there he began 
to count that money over and over again. The sons- 
in-law and the daughters watched at the keyhole and 
beheld the money. And Giovanni said aloud unto 
himself, ' Whoever doth good unto me, so will I do 
unto him ; if these my sons-in-law and my daughters 
behave themselves well unto me, I will leave them the 
whole of this. And verily, if I should die of hunger, 
never in my life will I touch one penny of this money, 
for I desire that my daughters should have it all.' 
And the daughters and their husbands heard all that 
he said ; and when he had done this for a great while 
he made pretence of replacing the money and then 
issued forth from his chamber taking that money with 
him, but his sons-in-law believed that it was in the 
chest. Then he called his sons-in-law unto him and 
said, ' Help me now and treat ye me well, and I will 
leave you rich men.' And from that day forward they 
each strove who should do him the most honour, and 
clothe him and feed him and bear him company. At 
last he made his will and left much money to friars 
and priests and hospitals and to the poor, all for the 
love of God, and his sons-in-law did he leave to be his 



76 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

heirs, and they did bind themselves to pay the debts 
which he should leave unpaid. And he ordered that, 
so soon as he should be buried, the friars should give 
the keys unto his sons-in-law ; and to these he said, 
* Bury me honourably, for ye can well do it, consider- 
ing what I shall leave unto you.' Each promised that 
he would do so. After this Giovanni lived with his 
sons-in-law and his daughters for a long time and in 
great honour, and at their expense. Then he died, and 
they caused him to be buried with much honour ; and 
they returned home, thinking it a thousand years till 
they should obtain the keys. And they went to fetch 
them, but first they paid the debts, as Giovanni had 
ordered. And when the debts were paid they were 
given the keys, and they returned home and opened 
the chest and found therein the iron bar and the 
writing : * This is the will of Giovanni Cavazza ; he 
who unto others doth give himself and all^ by this rod of 
iron shall he be killed withaV " 

Now this example^ which is distinguished by that 
pleasant cheerfulness which enlivens some of Boc- 
caccio's tales, this jest which pleased our moralist so 
much that he related it twice in his pages, and not 
without a touch of malice in his enjoyment, gives us 
an insight into certain hidden aspects of his nature, 
certain incorrigible defects in his character of astute 
and circumspect merchant. Beneath the habit of the 
devout moralist we discover the striped hose and the 
purse of the merchant ; under the outward semblance 
of religious unction we recognise the furtive cunning 




THE CHURCH OF SANTA REPARATA AND THE CAMPANILE. 

(From a miniature of the " Biadajoh.") 



[To face page 77- 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 77 

of that native trickery which neither religion nor 
examples could succeed in restraining. The modern 
merchant makes no pretences, because he belongs to 
a different age and a different race ; he knows no 
waverings between good and evil, for the simple reason 
that he looks only to the useful, into which either of 
the other qualities may enter with varying percentage. 
The fourteenth-century merchant wants to make a 
good profit, but he always keeps an eye on the safety 
of his soul, and his consequent uncertainties are easy 
to read between the lines of his counsels. Listen to 
the practical and crafty advice he offers in matters of 
business : 

" When thou hast need that another should render 
thee a service, go into his house, that is, into the house 
of the man from whom thou art going to ask the 
service, because he will not refuse thee in his own 
house as he would do outside. 

" If thou buyest a field or a vineyard, see that thou 
buyest a field that is small and good rather than one 
that is large and barren, because thou wilt always find 
labourers in the good field. 

*' When thou dwellest at thy country house, beware 
ot consorting together with the labourers when they 
take their rest, because they do all drink and are 
heated with wine and have their weapons about them, 
wherefore do thou let them alone upon feast days. If 
thou hast ought to do with the labourers, go unto them 
when they are working in the fields and thou shalt 
find them humble and meek, with the goodness of the 



78 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

plough, the spade, and the hoe. If thou hast to reckon 
with them, never do it at thy country house, but make 
them come into the city and there do thy reckoning ; 
because if thou dost it in the country, all the other 
labourers will take the part of thy labourers against 
thee, and thou wilt not be able to prevent them getting 
the better of thee and always putting thee in the 
wrong. 

" When thou goest to dwell in a strange place, seek 
to have as many friends as thou canst, and especially 
a priest or friar of good and honest life, and a 
physician. Endeavour likewise to obtain the friend- 
ships of one or more of the great men of the place, 
not spending too much money upon them, however ; 
by doing them a little honour, thou, who art a stranger, 
will incline unto thee any courteous and wise man. 
See that thou causest such things as will please them 
to be brought from thine own city and give them unto 
them once or twice a year ; such things as a fine 
sword, or a fine knife, or bells for a falcon, or jesses 
or hoods and similar things, or rings or belts, or bags 
or silken purses, which may be useful for them or for 
their wives or children." 

But still more business-like is the technical advice 
Paolo gives : 

" When thou buyest corn or other grain see that 
the measure be not filled up at one pouring in, for 
thereby wilt thou lose always one or two per cento. 
But when thou sellest, then do this, and thy store 
of grain will increase. 




THE ANCIENT BOUNDARY OF FLORENCE. 
(Jrom a miniature of the " Biadajolc") 



\To face page "jc). 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 79 

" If thou hast money to lay out and hast but a 
little money, then buy small grain rather than corn, 
because thou wilt thus gain two soldi upon every 
bushel of grain the same as though it were corn, 
and that grain will, cost thee but the third of the 
price of corn. Moreover, in times of scarcity thou 
wilt be able to sell it more easily. 

" If thou buyest other merchandise, buy it when 
it fetcheth only a small price and is but seldom 
asked for, and thou canst not make a mistake ; for 
in a little while thou wilt sell it to thine advantage 
and cannot lose thy money. 

" When thou buyest wine, always ask of the man 
from whom thou buyest in what manner he doth mix 
it and when is the time to put it into new vessels, 
and do thou the same and the wine will not be 
spoiled. 

"If thou art engaged in any business and other 
letters come tied up together with thine own (in 
those days there were neither posts nor stamps !), 
always remember to read thine own letters before 
giving the others unto those persons to whom they 
belong. And if thy letters advise thee to buy or sell 
any merchandise to thine advantage, send immediately 
for the broker and do that which thy letters advise, 
and then afterwards give the letters which came with 
thine own. But do not give them before thou hast 
concluded thine own business, because those letters 
could perchance advise something which would injure 
thy business, and the service which thou hast rendered 



8o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

by carrying the letters unto thy friend or neighbour 
or unto a stranger might cause great hurt unto thee, 
and thou shouldst never serve others and thereby 
hurt thyself or thine own affairs." 

It is advisable to be prudent and careful with one's 
neighbours : 

" Always stand well with thy neighbours, because 
people always inquire of them concerning thine affairs 
before they inquire of thee, and in matters both of 
honour and disgrace they can greatly harm thee." 
And above all things be circumspect ! 
" When thou art in the house of another, beware 
of speaking evil of any person belonging to that 
house. 

" Moreover, beware when thou art in the street, 
or against a division of planks or a thin wall, of 
saying aught that thou wouldst not that every man 
should hear. When thou enterest into a chamber, 
say nothing until thou knowest for a certainty who 
is in that chamber ; because, behind the curtain or 
some other hidden place, there might be shut up 
or concealed a person who would hearken unto all 
thy deeds or sayings. If thou desirest to speak of 
secret things, go thou to speak thy secrets in an open 
place, or in a field, or meadow or open ground, but 
look well that there be no person near who can hear 
thee ; and beware of hedges, of trees, caves, or walls, 
or the corners of streets, where other persons might 
be hidden." 

But wherefore all these precautions .? Perhaps to 




ZL -^ 



FLORENTINE MIND AND MANNERS 8i 

whisper into the ear of friend or companion advice 
like this, the last which I shall repeat here : 

" When thou sittest among the judges, receive 
thou no gifts which have been sent unto thee from 
either side ; but I tell thee, on the contrary, that if 
in a court of law thou hast need of the friendship 
of some lord or ruler of a place, his friendship is 
very easily gained if thou makest gifts unto him. 
Look and see who of his household is the most in 
his confidence, and make thou friends first with that 
person and bestow something upon him, and then 
ask help and counsel of him, and he will show thee 
how to obtain the love of his lord and how to present 
unto him the thing for which the man nearest his 
lord hath the greatest desire." 

Truly this reads almost like a scene from Shake- 
speare ! lago in secret converse with Shylock ! 




Phofo] [AUnan. 

THE PULPIT OF SAN PIERO SCHERAGGIO, FROM WHICH DANTE 

ADDRESSED THE PEOPLE. 

ITo face page 83. 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF 
THE RENAISSANCE FLORENTINES 



THE PRIVATE LIFE OF 
THE RENAISSANCE FLORENTINES 

pIORENZA of the thirteenth century differed very 
■*- little from the Fiorenza of the fourteenth and 
of the fifteenth. To whoever gazed down upon her 
from a height she would have appeared a gloomy mass 
of battlemented towers, encompassed by walls and 
bulwarks. 

The public buildings that we admire to-day, the 
graceful cupolas of the churches, the bell-towers whose 
voices repeat the heart-beats of the people, did not yet 
stand out against a background of deep-blue sky like 
the huge masts of a mighty vessel. The third cincture 
of walls that enclosed the city, whose demolition our 
own day has witnessed, was not yet completed, and 
Arno made a bend near the Piazza di Santa Croce, 
issuing between the Ponte a Rubaconte and the Castle 
of Altafronte. This was in the early times of the 
fourteenth century, when the little Church of Santa 
Reparata was still extant, and the very name of 
Santa Maria del Fiore was unknown. In the place 
where later stood the loggia of Or San Michele the 
corn-market was held ; the tower begun by Giotto, 

85 



86 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and called after his name, had not yet been carried 
up to the last tier of windows by Francesco Talenti ; 
only on the tower of the Palazzo dei Priori the great 
bell of the people, known as the vacca^ already bel- 
lowed forth its deep brazen tones, evoking the echoes 
of the sweet voice of liberty. 

The miniatures in the Biadajolo, the frescoes of the 
Bigallo^ already mentioned and here reproduced, give 
us only a faint idea of the Florence of those days. 
They are rather fanciful representations made at a 
period when perspective was still unknown, and the 
brilliant red roofs contrast too vividly in tone with 
the forest of towers that seem to intertwine and 
mount one on the top of another. To these may 
be added, for the thirteenth-century Fiorenza, a view 
of the Palace of the Priori as it was in the time of 
the Duke of Athens, with the Church of San Piero 
Scheraggio, where the parliament of the Commune 
was held before it had a building of its own and 
where Dante addressed the people from a pulpit which 
is still in existence. This valuable fresco attributed to 
Cennini was in the prison of the Stinche^ which was 
transformed into a theatre at the beginning of the 
last century and called Pagliano after the name of its 
founder, but is now known as the Teatro Verdi. The 
fresco is on the stairs leading to the Sala Filarmonica. 
Another fresco, to be seen with much difficulty in the 
upper cloisters of Santa Croce, shows San Giovanni, 
Santa Maria del Fiore, and the Campanile as they 
appeared when newly erected. The painting by 




i 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 87 

Domenico di Michelino, which may still be seen in 
the Duomo, endeavours to show the Florence of 
Dante, whose figure is a conspicuous object in the 
very centre of the picture ; but this also is a fancy 
Florence, imaginary like the Purgatorio and Inferno 
which the artist has painted close beside it. A 
more recent view of the city may be seen in the 
Assumption of the Virgin by Botticelli, painted for 
Matteo Palmieri, and now in the English National 
Gallery. The subject was taken from Palmieri's poem 
La citta di Vita^ and the painting was at the time 
considered almost heretical, because the artist had 
depicted the Virgin as received into the glory of 
heaven, surrounded by a sublime vision of female 
angels. But the landscape that serves as a back- 
ground to this marvellous composition is so lost in 
the distance and in the shadows of a golden twilight 
that it does not help us much in our quest. It is 
only later on that our desire is gratifi.ed, when we can 
see a plan of the city as it appeared at the end of the 
fifteenth century in the Chronicles of Niiremberg. 

But in order faithfully to picture Florence from 
the thirteenth century to the glorious days of the 
Renaissance, when the treasures that her merchants 
had garnered from all parts of the world were poured 
forth for the creation of immortal monuments, fol- 
lowing up the traditions of art inaugurated by Arnolfo, 
Giotto and Orcagna — to picture these scenes, which 
should be peopled with figures of artisans, merchants, 
women, friars, monks, jugglers, hawkers, poets, story- 



88 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

tellers, men-at-arms, rustics, pages, knights, that crowd 
the canvas — to give an even incomplete idea of the 
history of the Florentine people, that from mediaeval 
manners upraised themselves to the polish of the 
Renaissance — to do this would be the work of an 
artist who was at the same time an archaeologist and 
a poet. Nor would this suffice. But until this artist 
appears, if ever he does, who shall thus teach us 
by sight, we must content ourselves with tasting only 
such palatable bits as can be extracted from old books 
of reminiscences, domestic chronicles, and private cor- 
respondence, from story-tellers and poets, from dusty 
archives and forgotten records. Here embedded are 
many interesting particulars, many anecdotes, many 
items of news that help to give an insight into the 
life of that time, so remote even from our imagination. 
In the narrow, crowded streets, beside the massive 
stone palaces secure as fortresses, with their embattled 
towers rising proudly above their heads, crouched 
roofs thatched with straw, and windows covered with 
oiled linen in lieu of glass. These houses were always 
exposed to danger by fire, and Paolo di Ser Pace da 
Certaldo, as we read in a previous chapter, advised 
people always to keep large sacks ready, in which to 
remove their portable property in case of a con- 
flagration in the neighbourhood, and also long ropes 
to serve as fire-escapes, for even the higher, better- 
class houses, with their many rooms and winding 
passages, were not much safer. The dusty streets 
were never swept, except by the water that ran like 




Photo] 



OR SAN MICHEIE, THE SHRIXE BY ORCAGNA. 



[Aliiiaii. 
[2'c) /,icv pogf 89. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 89 

a rivulet in and out of the gutters, in which, as 
Sacchetti tells us in his famous " novels," those 
animals specially protected by San t' Antonio used 
to wallow, " after which they will pay visits in the 
neighbouring houses, bringing with them dirt, con- 
fusion, and disorder." Not that these houses were 
patterns of cleanliness. They were swept once a week, 
on Saturdays ; on other days the refuse was tossed 
under the bed, where could be found a little of every- 
thing, such as fruit-parings, cores, bones, plucked 
feathers, and live fowls, cackling geese, and an abun- 
dance of cobwebs. These were just the modest 
dwellings of a people satisfied with very little, who 
thought more of gain than of the comforts and luxuries 
of daily life — people pertaining to good families, 
nevertheless, but who passed their time shooting and 
hunting in the country over their own lands. Some- 
tirnes, however, they were also inhabited by upstarts, 
who endeavoured to enrich themselves by arts and 
trades. The grandfather of Messer Lapo da Casti- 
glionchio, who lived on the threshold of Messer 
Riccardo da Quona, beyond the Colonnine, used to 
have the city gate closed for him every night by an 
old woman, a good faithful servant, who afterwards 
deposited the key for him in his bedroom, so primitive 
were the manners. 

But Florence meanwhile was gradually growing as 
the prosperity of her citizens augmented. The old 
houses with thatched roofs were often burnt down. 
When a fire broke out, the whole population was 



90 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

excited and every one had to be under arms and on 
guard. Even the Signoria, to destroy with the least 
expense the houses of their adversaries whom they had 
perchance banished from the city, used to set them 
aflame and then pay the damages the fire might have 
caused to innocent neighbours. And passions burnt 
as hotly as fire. The quarrels, riots, feuds, vendette^ 
that were incessant, dyed the streets red with blood, 
while the triumphs in these frays were celebrated with 
feasts and banqueting. The Commune, grown proud 
and haughty, quickly offended, too, and ready to 
strike, redoubled its forces in order to subdue its foes. 
This achieved, the merchants of the conquering city 
celebrated a new species of triumph ; they led their 
mules, laden with the cloths of Calimala, the silks of 
Por Santa Maria, across the plains and mountains that 
a short time before had been scoured by the horse 
and foot soldiers of their army. The traders, follow- 
ing hard upon the footsteps of their less peaceable 
neighbours, bore Florentine gold and Florentine wit to 
the cities under whose walls had but lately waved the 
banner that bore the badge of this great free people. 
The Mercato Vecchio was then the heart of 
Florence, and seemed to the Florentines the most 
beautiful piazza in the world. Whoever reads its 
praises in the pages of Antonio Pucci, or searches 
among the tales of Franco Sacchetti for the chronicles 
of daily life, can form an idea of a life that was con- 
tented to enact itself upon so small a stage. Here, 
on this, the true emporium of Florentine commerce, 




= s 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 91 

were gathered together shopkeepers, merchants, doctors, 
idlers, gamblers, rustics, apothecaries, rogues, maid- 
servants, nobles, beggars, hucksters, and gay bands of 
spendthrifts. Here, too, was to be found merchandise 
of every sort and kind : fresh meat, fruit, cheese, 
vegetables, game, poultry, linen, flowers, pottery, 
barrels, and second-hand furniture. The street-boys, 
mischievous and quick-tongued even then, took up 
their permanent abode there, as if it were their proper 
home ; here, too, rats held perpetual carnival. But 
people flocked thither from all parts. 

No day passed that some disturbance did not occur, 
some quarrel, some alarm. Thus a horse became 
obstreperous, and every person shouted at the top 
of their voices for help, ^'- Accorr'uomo'''' \ the F'lazza. 
dei Signori was thronged with the runaways, the 
palace door was hastily shut, the family armed itself, 
and so did the followers of the captain and of the 
executioner ; some for very fear hid under their beds, 
to come out after the tumult had subsided covered 
with dirt and cobwebs. Two mules picked at by 
crows would begin to kick and jump over the stalls 
of the sellers. Once again all the shops were hastily 
shut, and serious quarrels would arise between the 
clothiers and the butchers on account of the harm 
done by these infuriated beasts. Sometimes even 
graver disputes arose. Gamblers and keepers of 
gaming-tables would come to blows and such a scene 
be enacted as is represented in the fresco in the 
Monastery of Lecceto near Siena. The dice fall on 



92 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

the table in such a manner that one of the players 
loses ; he springs to his feet infuriated by the stroke 
of ill-luck, and stretching out his arms clutches the 
winner by the throat ; the other, pale with fear and 
anger, seeks in vain for the avenging knife ; oaths 
break out from the lips of the combatants ; the 
voices of the bystanders, women and children, rise 
up in fear, " Accorr'uomo ! " The dense crowd re- 
treats, and when the guard or captain arrives with 
his followers, always too late of course, the victim 
already lies on the ground in a pool of blood. 

Such the dramas, the fails divers^ of those days, 
which every now and again disturbed the peace ot 
our ancestors. The burgher story-tellers, who fulfilled 
the office of our modern newspapers, rarely tell of 
these cruel acts. They prefer to dwell on the tricks 
and practical jokes with which the merry folk amused 
themselves, eternal source of fireside talk when the 
housemates were gathered together before the andirons 
of those huge open hearths, under whose blackened 
chimneys the family assembled before the hour of 
putting out the lights should sound, after which 
whosoever went last to bed would ascertain that the 
barrels were well closed and the doors and windows 
tightly shut. They were always ready for a laugh, 
these people — always ready to forget the terrors of 
the other world held up to them by their priests and 
calculated by their weird horrors to damp the most 
buoyant spirits. The incredulity of the new age 
already began to peep forth, mocking at the priests, 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 93 

and also a little at the miracles and many like im- 
postures. The mockers and scoffers who laughed at 
others, and sought to deceive their neighbours and 
the world, called themselves '' new men," and their 
mischievous doctrines' "new things." The group of 
people that gathered around the counters of shops 
and under the loggie that nestled close to the palaces, 
made the place re-echo with their clear, silvery laughter, 
to which corresponded the knot of whispering women 
who clustered chatting beside their housedoors. 

The artists, or, as they then called themselves, the 
artificers, were the most ingenious plotters of practical 
jokes, concocted between one stroke of the brush and 
another. The memory of them endured for a long 
while, so much so that Vasari has incorporated into 
his Lives various of those which the novelists had 
not included in their chronicles of citizen life. "It 
has ever been that among painters are found strange 
men," says Sacchetti, — and Bonamico Buffalmacco, 
immortalised in the Decamerone, and the names of 
Bartolo Gioggi, Bruno di Giovanni, Filippo di Ser 
Brunellesco, Paolo Uccello, and Donatello, recall to 
our memories tricks played on a certain Calandrino 
and on the Fat Carpenter, besides many others who 
were the victims of these merciless high spirits. But 
even graver people were infected by the mad wish to 
joke and laugh, and from the workshops of artificers 
it entered into those of the apothecaries, it took pos- 
session of the doctors, of the judges, of the proctors, 
it even penetrated into the Palace to enliven the 



94 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

dulness of the Priori obliged to stay there shut up 
far away from wife and child, simple men of simple 
habits, both men and habits bearing the stamp of 
ancient boorishness. Thus the whole Signoria slept 
in one room, a fact that gave occasion for many jokes, 
and indeed provoked them. So simple, truly, were 
these signori^ that it was not uncommon for the provost 
of the Priori to go himself into the kitchen to broil 
his own slice of meat. The tricks and pranks played 
bordered often, it must be owned, on roguery ; but 
a good laugh at the expense of the person who was 
in the wrong, and on whom the joke had been per- 
petrated, was considered to put everything square. 
For in those days, when everybody thought of them- 
selves and of their own interests, public opinion had 
no pity or compassion on the man who let himself 
be befooled. By common consent all manner of wily 
tricks were permitted to merchants, and the Florentine 
traders were famous for their great cunning. Sacchetti 
tells what happened to a certain Soccebonel of Friuli 
who went to buy some cloth from one of them. The 
merchant measured out four ells, but then managed 
to steal half the amount ; to cover the fraud, he said 
to Soccebonel, " If you want to do well with this cloth, 
leave it to soak all night in water and you will see 
how excellent it will become." Soccebonel did as he 
was told, and then took the cloth to the shearer. 
When he went to fetch it back, he asked how much 
he had to pay. " It seems to me, nine hraccia^^ said 
the shearer ; " therefore give me nine soldi^ " Nine 




Pho^o'] 



lAIinaii. 



THE OLD MARKET WITH THE LOGGIA DEL PESCE, BY VASARI. 

ITo face page 95. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 95 

hraccia^' said the other, *' alas ! they measure, but 
the cloth does not grow under their hands." Socce- 
bonel runs to the cutter, runs hither and thither in 
his despair. At last he is told that these Florentine 
cloths do not grow in water, and one man tells him 
about a person who bought a braccio of Florentine 
cloth, kept it in water, and by next morning it had 
shrunk so that there was none left. 

But whoever searches the mercantile codes amidst 
the dust of libraries and archives will find that they 
all concur in condemning such tricks. All of these 
papers, each of which begins, " In the name of the 
Father, Amen," are pervaded by instances of good 
examples, and all breathe excellent customs, wise saws, 
and honest rules. Their theoretical precepts were 
clearly inspired by the most severe morality. As we 
have seen in the ConsigU of Paolo di Ser Pace da 
Certaldo, these books are a curious mixture of precepts 
inspired by the most Christian morality, and of advice, 
both practical and technical, founded upon the most 
utilitarian business principles. This contrast between 
religious aspirations and the most cynical and ego- 
tistical practice existed in the men of the Trecento 
and following centuries — until the time, in fact, when 
Italian thought and morality became entirely domi- 
nated by the influence of religion. It must not be 
supposed, however, that the mental condition of the 
people of that day was false and perverse, or that the 
morality of their theoretical precepts was deliberately 
intended to conceal their intention of doing exactly 



96 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

the contrary in real life. This was by no means the 
case. This contrast resulted from the manners of the 
times, from fixed traditions, and from that rule of 
daily life which never swerved from certain habitual 
practices ; and the inclination to falsify weights, corrupt 
justice, swindle in selling — in short, to employ every 
means of furthering their own individual interests — 
always proved stronger than the honest intentions of 
these theoretical moralists. They wrote in perfect 
good faith, far removed in thought from the vicissi- 
tudes of life and from long-established tradition, and 
they would have liked the world to be regulated 
according to those precepts of exemplary morality. 
But when they quitted their desks, where they had 
devoted themselves to the spiritual exercise of inditing 
pious precepts for children and grandchildren, when 
they laid down their pens in order to return to their 
banks or shops, they found regular and unconscious 
breakers of those same precepts in their own clerks 
and assistants, and the force of habit was so strong 
that they could not escape from it or apply to real 
life those moral precepts they themselves had just 
been compiling. The contrast between desire and 
reality, between precept and practice, was the secret 
of all those lives, which were unable to escape from 
the fierce necessities of their times and surroundings 
except by shutting themselves up in monasteries or 
devoting themselves wholly and solely to religion. 

Thus it is that in books written by men of those 
days, who were not moralists by profession as were 




Photol [Aliitari. 

THE DEVIL, BY GIAMBOLOGNA, AT THE CORNER OF THE VECCHIETTI 

PALACE, IN THE OLD MARKET. 

[To face page 97. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 97 

priests and monks, we find good thoughts and moral 
counsel mingled with advice of the most utilitarian 
description. Moreover, in an age when the struggle 
for life was fought out almost man to man, they 
would have felt disgraced even in the eyes of their 
own children and familiars if they had failed to show 
themselves shrewd and crafty and in all ways well 
able to defend themselves. 

Shrewdness, and above all, craftiness, is still held 
to be a valuable quality in the business world. In 
the matter of morality the merchants of to-day (and 
not only Italian merchants) do not differ very greatly 
from those of the Trecento and the Renaissance. Only 
modern merchants are more sincere, and not being 
obliged to keep up religious appearances, they do 
not trouble themselves to give good advice and are 
ashamed to commit to paper the business methods 
they may find it needful to employ. 

What marvel, then, that a preacher, in order to 
attract a congregation and not be obliged to address 
an empty church, announced that he would proclaim 
from the pulpit that usury is not a sin but a help .? 
And so he did, all through Lent and on Palm Sun- 
day to a large and attentive congregation. What we 
moderns term "log-rolling" was the order of the 
day. Families widened their borders and strengthened 
their connections by these means, usually favoured 
by matrimonial alliances, for capital was the one and 
only basis of safety, and this was upheld by a whole 
mass of laws and privileges. The father was the 

7 



i)B MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

despot master of all his personal property. He could 
leave it to whomsoever he chose, to collateral relations 
or to some pious foundation, nay, even to those 
children whom love had brought into his house ; and 
this he could do by will, a matter now impossible 
in continental countries, though still possible in 
England, where the Code Napoleon does not obtain. 
From this fact we can realise the important place 
that lawyers and clerks then occupied, for disputes 
about wills were quite common occurrences. A 
wife inheriting ab intestato had a right only to a 
fourth of her children's goods, and in reality only to 
mere nourishment. Everything conspired to preserve 
the integrity of capital and prevent it from leaving 
the family, the firm, and the commune. It is a point 
that cannot be too much insisted on. Inside that 
society of merchants a greed for gain was the supreme 
law of every action. It would be useless to look for 
the sentiment that inspires the modern family, where 
for woman is reserved so noble a role, such honour- 
able and tender offices. Those poor Florentine 
mothers had to be contented with such humble 
activity as the tyranny of their husbands permitted 
them, and to live, or rather to drag out their lives 
in those gloomy, squalid houses, taking care of the 
children, visiting the churches, and confessing to the 
friars their manifold sins of desire. The daughters 
— those girls with whom to-day we take such pains — 
were then never even taught to read. " If it is a girl, 
put her to sew and not to read ; it is not good that 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 99 

a woman should know how to read unless you wish 
to make her a nun," thus counsels Paolo di Ser Pace 
da Certaldo. The convents were then, and for cen- 
turies after, the sole refuge for these poor wretches. 
They were also a providence for prolific families. To 
have twenty or more children seemed the most natural 
thing in the world. If they lived it was said, " Heaven 
be praised " ; and if they died, " For everything be 
Heaven praised, Amen." In the memoranda, in 
domestic chronicles in the time of great mortality, 
were registered in such terms the deaths as well as 
the births, with a serenity that would seem cynicism 
indeed to loving mothers of to-day. 

These documents also hand down to us indisputable 
proofs of a singular fact — that is, the intrusion in the 
family of a new element that obscures the vaunted 
purity of the morals of those past days. Benevolent 
critics find an excuse for this in the great mortality 
caused by the plague among both city and country 
dwellers, and also in the fact that the prospect of small 
wages was not enough to induce the men and women of 
the people to go out as domestic servants ; hence it was 
necessary to look to foreign commerce to supply the 
deficiency. But this reasoning hardly holds. Rather, 
we think, it was the trade with the East, the vagabond 
life led by the merchants and their ever-increasing 
wealth, that caused that traffic in slaves of both sexes 
which lasted through two centuries, from the beginning 
of the thirteenth century onwards. Oriental slaves 
bought as live goods, generally through Genoese, 



100 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Venetian, and Neapolitan brokers, were chiefly Tartars, 
Greeks, Turks, Dalmatians and Circassians, and do 
not seem to have been archetypes of beauty. The 
registers in which the notaries marked down, together 
with the name and age, the price and description of 
the wares, " the points " of the necks and faces of the 
slaves bought and sold, bear witness to this circum- 
stance ; nearly all had olive complexions, though some 
were found who had rosy skins and were florid and 
fair. The faces never seemed to lack some special 
and distinctive mark — some were pitted with small- 
pox, some had moles, others were scarred ; the nose 
was generally squat and flat, the lips thick and pro- 
minent, the eyes dull and small, the forehead low and 
freckled. To these pen-sketches made by pedantic 
and precise lawyers some portraits correspond that 
are still extant of these women. In a rare and curious 
book, the memoranda of Baldovinetti, in which this 
ancestor of the famous painter used to illustrate by 
drawing his jottings, there are preserved for us the 
portraits of three slaves he bought in the years, 1377, 
1380 and 1388 : "Dorothea, a Tartar, from Russia, 
eighteen years or more of age ; Domenica, of white 
skin, from Tartar y ; Veronica, sixteen years old, 
whom I bought almost naked from Bonaroti, son of 
Simon de Bonaroti " — that is to say, from an 
ancestor of Michael Angelo. These three — Dorothea, 
Domenica and Veronica — could, when a little older, 
have easily served as models to the future Buonarroti 
for his " Three Fates." Such women, ugly or 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES loi 

beautiful, entered the houses of the rich Florentines 
to perform the most humble services and to take care 
of the children. They caused much anxiety on every 
account to the poor house matrons. Pucci, in one of 
his sonnets, tells us that the slaves had the best of it 
in everything, and better off than any one, check- 
mating their mistresses. He maliciously explains 
some reasons, and tells that they often knew how 
to play ugly tricks on their mistresses, who, as Ales- 
sandra Macinghi, the mother of the Strozzi, confessed 
some years later, would avenge themselves by laying 
hands on these same slaves. Still, pests though they 
were, it seems the families could not do without them. 
They were the nurses, the maids-of-all-work, of their 
day ; and Alessandra wrote to her son Filippo when 
at Naples : "Let me remind you of the need we have 
of a slave, and, if you have the opportunity, give orders 
to have one bought : ask for a Tartar, for they are 
the best for hard work, and are simple in their 
ways. The Russians are more delicate and prettier, 
but, according to my judgment, a Tartar would be 
best." Nor could Madonna Alessandra have found 
any one who could execute her commission better than 
Filippo, who already had with him for a long while 
a slave who knew how to work well, and about whom 
his mother wrote, April 7, 1469 : "Andrea as well 
as Tomaso Ginori, who are now with you, came to 
see us on Easter Day, and told me many things about 
your household, and especially about Marina, and the 
many pretty ways she has with you." And a year 



102 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

later, in an ironical tone, she says, " I send you the 
towels ; be careful that Madama Marina does not 
make them disappear," from which we gather that 
by cunning and pretty ways these women knew how 
to win over their masters and become madam. They 
even obtained, by faithful labour, good behaviour, and 
general aptitude, many a liberal testamentary bequest. 
It was yet worse when the bartered blood of Tartars 
and Russians mixed with that of this pure, ancient, 
and free race. 

But let us return to the chaster atmosphere of the 
family, into which, with accumulated riches, there 
entered also, alas ! those poisonous germs which later 
on were destined to corrupt and corrode Italian life 
and conscience. Between the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries a great change occurred. The renovation of 
manners and customs, already panting towards a freer 
life that became entirely unbridled in the Renaissance, 
had weakened faith and discouraged religion. It seemed 
as though the people no longer understood any but 
worldly pleasures. The letters of Mazzei bear witness 
to this ; the good notary of Prato is the wise man of 
" rough soul and frozen heart." His friend Datini, to 
speak frankly, is the most detestable type of merchant 
to be found in his day. Ser Lapo is an ascetic spirit, 
a man of good and ancient faith, and a convinced 
moralist. In his letters we seem to see the rebellious 
sinner, struggling against the holy man who seeks 
to lead him to a peaceful death and the redemption 
of his earthly errors. It is the fight between the 




Photo] 



rORTRAIT UK l-KANCKSCO DAIIM. 



[Aliimri. 
I'fo face page 102 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 103 

religious sentiment and the moralistic spirit of the 
new age that radiated in the glory of the Renaissance, 
but which, after a wonderful moment of splendour, 
left behind it in the souls of Italians a black and deadly 
void. Out of this darkness the modern man was to 
arise later on, purified by these centuries of servitude, 
and matured by many vigils of thought. 

But we have again wandered from the family. Let 
us look in once more upon the Florentine house, 
out of whose windows " the loving slaves shook the 
dust from their masters' belongings every morning, 
looking fresher and happier than the rose," as a 
poem of the period has it — this house where the wife 
barely passed in happiness even the very first months 
of her married life : later on she merely numbered the 
years that sped by the names of the children who 
grew up around her, each of whom recalled to her one 
of her husband's long absences, when he had gone 
away to trade far off beyond the mountains and over 
the seas. The youthful freshness of these women 
faded quickly, and, as Sacchetti writes, the most 
beautiful among them in a short time " drooped, 
degenerated, withered in old age, and at last became 
a skull." It was but natural that they should try to 
correct nature by art, and repair the ravages caused 
by domestic cares ; and this not merely from vanity. 
Even great painters like Taddeo Gaddi and Alberto 
Arnoldi agreed that the Florentine women were the 
best artists of all the world. 

" Was there ever save for them a painter — nay, 



104 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

even a mere dyer — who could turn black into white ? 
Certainly not ; for it is against nature. Yet, if a face 
is yellow and pallid, they change it by artificial means 
to the hue of a rose. One who, by nature or age, has 
a skinny figure, they are able to make florid and plump. 
I do not think Giotto or any other painter could 
colour better than they do ; but the most wonderful 
thing is, that even a face which is out of proportion, 
and has goggle eyes, they will make correct with eyes 
like to a falcon's. As to crooked noses, they are soon 
put straight. If they have jaws like a donkey, they 
quickly correct them. If their shoulders are too large, 
they plane them ; if one projects more than the other, 
they stuff them so with cotton that they seem in 
proportion. And so on with breasts and hips, doing 
more without a scalpel than Polycletus himself could 
have -done with one. The Florentine women are past- 
mistresses of painting and modelling, for it is plain 
to see that they restore where nature has failed." 

We cannot blame them, nor do we wish to do so. 
Poor women ! this was the only freedom they enjoyed, 
to masquerade as youthful, happy creatures, to make 
their faces bright and fresh while their hearts were often 
weeping at finding themselves supplanted by other 
women. They also loved to change the fashion and 
shape of the dresses, and here they were able to give 
free vent to their ambition. The admirers of the 
past, beginning with Dante, blame them for so much 
changeableness, which irritated even the moralising 
story-tellers and the rulers, not to mention the 




Photo-] [Alinari. 

THE TOMB OF FRANCESCO DATINI, IN THE CHURCH OF SAN FRANCESCO, PRATO. 

[To face page 104. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 105 

husbands, who would willingly have economised on 
these extravagant tastes of their wives. Sacchetti 
has much to say on this theme, over which he grows 
eloquent. He writes in his virtuous indignation how 
" some women had their dresses cut so low that the 
armpit could be seen. They then jumped to the other 
extreme, and made the collars come up to their ears. 
The girls who used to go about so modestly have 
entirely changed the shape of their hood, so as to 
reduce it to a cap, and with this headgear they wear 
around their necks a collar to which are attached all 
sorts of little beasts, that hang down into their breasts. 
As for their sleeves, they can almost be called mat- 
tresses. Was there ever invented a more harmful, 
useless shape ? Could a woman, wearing those things, 
lift a glass or anything else from the table without 
soiling both sleeves and table-cloth with the tumblers 
they upset .f* Their waists, too, are all squeezed in, 
their arms are covered by their trains, and their throats 
enclosed with hoods. One would never end if one 
wished to say everything about these women, beginning 
with their immeasurable trains and ending with their 
headgear. They sit up on the roofs, and some curl 
their hair, some plaster it down, and others bleach 
it, so that often they die of cold." 

It would seem, however, that this craving for 
novelty attacked men as well, and was by no means 
confined to the weaker sex. Poor Messer Valore di 
Buondelmonte, an old man cut on the ancient pattern, 
was forced by his relations to change his hood. Every- 



io6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

body marvelled and stopped him in the street. " Oh, 
what ! is this Messer Valore ? I do not know you. 
What is the matter with you ? Have you the 
mumps ? " 

At one time it was the fashion to wear such rufFs 
and wrist-bands that it could be said of the Florentines 
that they wore water-pipes around their necks and 
tiles on their arms ; whence it happened that Sal- 
vestro Brunelleschi, while eating peas with a spoon, 
instead of putting them linto his mouth, -put them 
inside his ruff, and scalded himself. Later on it 
became fashionable to have the hose divided and 
crossed in three or four colours. Shoes had very 
long points, and the legs were so swathed with strings 
that the wearer could hardly sit down. Most of the 
youths went without a mantle, and wore their hair 
down to their shoulders. For the wrist-band a hraccio 
of cloth was allowed, and more stuff was put in a 
glove than in a hood. The old fashions struggled 
with the new, the newer, the very newest. Everybody 
was individually capricious. The Florentine people, 
inquisitive then as now, liked to behold the new 
dresses, mantles, and gabardines in which their towns- 
folk were muffled, so that they hardly recognised 
each other and had to scan one another keenly in 
the face before friend knew friend. It was a veritable 
masquerade. This mania finally assumed such pro- 
portions that the men, who have always been the 
law-makers, pondered how they could by legislation 
put a check upon the " extravagant ornaments of the 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 107 

Florentine women," In 1306 and 1330 the Com- 
mune promulgated sumptuary laws, reinforced in 
1352, 1355, 1384, 1388 and 1396, when very severe 
regulations were a4ded. These had again to be 
revived in 1439, ^45^> ^^^ once more in 1562. The 
clergy thundered from the pulpits, the wise men 
admonished, and some of them, such as Dominici, 
went the length of furnishing regulations to careful 
mothers about their own dress and that of their 
daughters. The story-tellers lashed with their wit 
this immoderate luxury. Meanwhile the other cities 
of Tuscany and Italy sent to the Florentine merchants 
for copies of the above-named regulations in order to 
include them in their own laws, and constantly repeated 
their request. At the same time there began a curious 
contest between the severity of the rigorous legislation 
and the cunning of the women. These astute ladies 
did not fight openly ; they pretended to bow their 
heads and merely appear annoyed while in reality 
they waited for the storm to pass. They were too 
wise ; they knew the world too well not to be aware 
that laws which are too severe remain ever a dead 
letter. Whenever and howsoever they could, they 
sought, if not to annul, at least to evade them. Thus, 
when the Duke of Calabria came to Florence in 1326, 
the ladies gathered round the duchess, who was a 
Frenchwoman, Marie de Valois, and obtained from 
her the concession that a certain thick yellow-and- 
white silk braid, which they had worn instead of 
plaits of hair in front of their faces, should be restored 



io8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

to them. " An immodest and unnatural ornament," 
grumbles Villani, who had observed how the inordinate 
appetite of women triumphs over reasonable and wise 
men. Four years after, on the ist of April, 1330, the 
Florentines deprived their women of every ornament. 
But even this tempest blew over. Like the women 
of Flanders, of whom Paradin writes in the Annates 
de Bourgogne, when tormented for the same cause 
by Thomas Connette, a fanatical Carmelite, they 
" releverent leur cornes, et firent comme les lyma^ons, 
lesquels quand ils entendent quelque bruit retirent 
et resserrent tout bellement leurs cornes ; mais, le 
bruit passe, soudain ils les relevent plus grandes que 
devant." And an opportunity of putting forth their 
horns anew was the coming of the Duke of Athens 
to Florence in 1342, when the French wore "such 
wonderfully different dresses," as a contemporary 
chronicler observes. And here I would pause for 
a moment to describe the fashions of the time when 
the young men clothed themselves in such tight and 
short tunics that in order to put them on they had 
to be helped by another person — tunics that were 
belted in at the waist by a band of leather, fastened 
by a rich buckle, from which they appended a fanci- 
fully worked German purse. Their hood was joined 
on to a short mantle, and ended in a long peak that 
reached to the ground and which they were able to wrap 
round their heads when cold. The cavaliers wore close- 
fitting jackets, with the points of the wrist-band lined 
with miniver or ermine and trailing on the ground. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 109 

Of course the women immediately copied this new 
caprice. In the frescoes attributed to Simone Memmi 
in Santa Maria Novella, we can behold these fashions, 
which had then but just come in, and whence we 
can gather a faint conception of the magnificent 
material employed in the making of these gorgeous 
garments. The Prammatica of dress, dating from 
1343, which is preserved in the Archivio della 
Grascia, tells of splendid dresses that were sequestered 
by the rigour of the law, and marked by the servants of 
these unfortunate foreign officers chosen by the Com- 
mune to apply the laws, with a seal of lead, having on 
one side half a lily, and on the other half a cross. 
Here is the description of a forbidden gown which 
belonged to Donna Francesca, the wife of Landozzo 
di Uberto degli Albizi, of the parish of San Pietro 
Maggiore : " A black mantle of raised cloth ; the 
ground is yellow, and over it are woven birds, parrots, 
butterflies, white and red roses, and many figures 
in vermilion and green, with pavilions and dragons, 
and yellow and black letters and trees, and many 
other figures of various colours — the whole lined with 
cloth in hues of black and vermilion." 

Often instead of letters they had whole proverbs 
embroidered on their dresses. In those same archives 
they keep a curious document, telling of those un- 
lucky officials who were obliged to fulfil a duty so 
ungracious — of those poor podesta and captains, 
squires, judges, notaries, and servants, who came 
to Florence from the Guelph cities of Lombardy 



no MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and the Marches to hold the office of governors, 
and who had to dispute in their rough dialect with 
the quick tongues of the Florentine women and their 
husbands, and were laughed at for their pains by the 
story-tellers of the city. There is a tale told by 
Franco Sacchetti narrating the sufferings of a judge, 
Messer Amerigo Amerighi of Pesaro, " in person 
most beautiful, and able in his science," who was 
ordered, while Franco was one of the Priori, to 
proceed with solicitude to execute certain orders, as 
usual on the ornaments of the women. The valiant 
judge set to work, sending around notaries and 
servants to make the requisite inquisition ; but the 
citizens went to the Signoria and complained that the 
new podestd did his work so well, that never before 
had the women been so free to dress as they pleased 
as they were now. Here is the justification of the 
unfortunate Messer Amerigo : 

" My Lords, I have studied all my life, and now, 
when I thought that I knew something, I find that 
I know nothing. For, looking out for these orna- 
ments of your women, which, according to your 
orders, are forbidden, such arguments as they brought 
forward in their defence I have never before heard, 
and from among them I should like to mention to 
you a few. There comes a woman with peaked hood 
scalloped and twisted round. My notary says, ' Tell 
me your name, because your hood is scalloped.' The 
good woman takes down the peaked end, which is 
fastened to the hood with a pin, and, holding it in 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES in 

her hand, says, ' Why, no ; do you not see it is a 
wreath ? ' Then my man goes farther, and finds a 
woman wearing many buttons down the front of 
her dress. He tells her that she cannot wear all 
those buttons. She answers, ' Yes, Messere, I can 
wear these ; they are not buttons, and if you do not 
believe me look for the shanks, and see, too, that there 
are no buttonholes.' The notary goes to another, 
who wears ermine, wondering what she will have 
to say for herself. * You wear ermine,' he remarks, 
and is about to put down her name. The woman 
says, ' Do not put down my name, because this is 
not ermine. This is the fur of a suckling.' * What 
is this suckling } ' asks the notary, and the woman 
answers, ' It is an animal.' " 

The notary does not insist, nor can the Signoria, 
who, remembering their own women at home, con- 
clude, as they have always concluded at the Palace, 
by exhorting Messer Amerigo to let things be and 
to allow the women to keep their false buttons, their 
suckling's fur, and their belts. They do not wish, 
perhaps, that the judge from Pesaro should remember 
the melancholy distich that one of his colleagues 
of the guild of merchants had written on the margin 
of his sumptuary statutes : — 

" If there is a person you do hate 
Send him to Florence as officer of State." 

Once again one of Sacchetti's stories proves itself 
a truthful historical document. The Archivio della 



112 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Grascia preserves the acts of the Judge of Appeal 
and Cassation. Among these registers is one written 
by Giovanni di Piero da Lugo, notary under Ser 
Amerigo of Pesaro, officer of the Grascia in the 
Commune of Florence for six months, beginning 
from March 15, 1384. On that day Amerigo 
issued a proclamation to recall to memory the punish- 
ment inflicted by the law against whomsoever trans- 
gressed the sumptuary regulations. On the 27th of 
March the inquisition on the part of the officials began. 
When they met a woman with two rings ornamented 
with four pearls, or wearing a little cap embroidered, 
or a wreath, or too many buttons on her dress, 
immediately the unlucky creature was noted down 
as being in contravention, to use a modern phrase. 
The sergeant would go to her house with a summons 
for her to appear before the judge. On the day 
appointed her husband would put in an appearance 
on behalf of his wife, who, recognising the error, 
paid the fine. These things went on for a good 
while. Later on the women, grown malicious, began 
those contests recounted with such evident gusto 
by the story-tellers, but naturally omitted in the 
register of the notary. The inquisitions grew more 
rare, the sentences less frequent, and those husbands 
who appeared before the tribunals began to deny 
the guilt of their wives with valid arguments. One 
is too old to be capable of what is imputed to her, 
another was at home on that day and at that hour, a 
third is in mourning — and so forth. The protocol 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 113 

is closed with hardly a sentence registered, the real 
fact being that the Signoria and the judges, above 
all, had given themselves up as vanquished— a defeat 
which is not devoid of the suspicion that those officers 
and notaries chosen for this hateful magisterial office 
had allowed themselves to be conquered by the fire 
of some beautiful eyes and the caresses of some flatter- 
ing voice. For, inside the cover of a copy of the 
pragmatic or sumptuary laws of that date still extant 
in the Florentine archives, do not we read the out- 
pourings of some enamoured heart which proves itself 
a precious human document embedded among the 
pedantic quibbles? This is how it runs: 

" The troops of merry friends, the songs so sweet, 

The hawks, the hounds, the wanderings full of pleasure, 
Fair women, temples, where for love my feet 

Were wont on holidays to seek my treasure, 
I hate them now, like fire. This thought I meet 

Where'er I go,— oh, wretched beyond measure ! 
Thou dwellest far from me, my love, my own, 

My sovereign hope, and I am here alone." 

Is this not proof enough to show that the women 
had found partisans in the very bosom of the magis- 
tracy .? No wonder their cause was won. But for 
a short time only, because periodically some fresh 
charge was made against feminine vanity, and other 
storms broke out. The poor women, they were really 
much persecuted ! They also encountered terrible 
adversaries in the moralists of the day, who in their 
tractates concerning the government of the family 

8 



114 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

did not cease striking that note. Palmieri is an 
example of this. Their worst foes, however, were 
the friars, at that time invaded by a furious desire 
to purge the world of its sins. Fra Bernardino of 
Siena, in 1425, continued in Perugia those bonfires 
of all the worldly vanities which he had initiated the 
year before in Rome, making great havoc of false hair 
and other vain adornments, of trimmings and hoods, 
of dice, cards, gaming-tables, and other such diabolic 
things, foreshadowing the great fires made by Savona- 
rola in Florence in 1497, which proved of such evil 
omen to their instigator. Nevertheless, among so many 
foes staunch partisans were not wanting. In April, 
1 46 1, a preacher who had shouted in Santa Croce 
against the women, also appealed against them in 
the presence of the Signoria, in the Consiglio dei 
Richiesti, where no less a matter was discussed than 
the absolute prohibition of ail fashion. On this 
occasion Luigi Guicciardini, father of the great his- 
torian and politician, said that to the remarks of 
a Milanese who drew evil deductions as to the 
morality of the Florentine women from their extra- 
vagant dress, he had replied that if the dress seemed 
immodest their acts were quite the contrary. 

But these sumptuary laws, re-touched and re-manipu- 
lated every now and again, were less onerous to the 
women than to their husbands, whose purses had to 
pay the fines. Nor were the regulations confined to 
the limiting of personal adornment. The luxury and 
pomp permitted at weddings, baptisms, banquets and 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 115 

funerals were all rigorously laid down. Thus the 
number of guests at a marriage could not exceed 
two hundred ; the marriage-brokers had to announce 
beforehand the names of the guests. The marriage 
portions were also fixed by law, as well as the nuptial 
ceremonies. The cook who prepared the wedding 
dinner was obliged to report to the officers of the 
Commune the number of dishes which he served. 
The meats might not be more than three ; not more 
than seven pounds of veal ; and the number of capons, 
turkeys, ducks was also minutely stated in the statutes. 
So also were the rites to be observed at obsequies, 
the number of wax torches that might be burned, 
the clothes the dead were permitted to wear, the 
dresses of those that followed them; the presents 
permitted at baptisms : in short, every single little 
thing that occurred in the daily life of the citizens 
was minutely and carefully regulated, and whosoever 
disobeyed these regulations was condemned to pay 
a heavy fine. For even in those days the municipal 
government eagerly seized on every excuse in order 
to tax its citizens, and the study of those citizens, 
especially of those cunning merchants, was how in 
every possible way to lighten for themselves by cir- 
cumvention the burden of these imposts— in fact, to 
use a phrase of the period, "to steal with honest 
licence." "The Commune steals so much itself, I 
may as well steal from it also," is an old saying 
quoted by Sacchetti, who laments the slow procedure 
of the Commune, even towards those who desire to 



ii6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

give up to it their goods. "Everybody drew water 
for their own mill," says Marchionne Stefani, and he 
too had his own mill to work. They all strove to 
defend themselves from these charges ; " and as it 
always happens," writes the chronicler, "the heavy 
large beasts jump and break the nets." Thus Fran- 
cesco Datini, when dealing with those who ruled the 
State, took care of number one. In those years when 
it was necessary that the imposts should be levied 
ten or fifteen times a year, on account of the wars 
fought by the arms of the mercenaries and because 
of the treaties of peace concluded by means of money, 
whosoever could not accomplish what he wanted by 
the aid of friendship or favours, arrived at his goal 
by cunning, like Bartolo Sonaglini, who, when he was 
about to be heavily taxed, used to go down every 
morning and stand on the threshold of his own door 
narrating his evil fortunes and financial difficulties 
to everybody who passed by, saying, " O brother, 
I am ruined ! I must either disappear from the world 
or die in prison ; " so that when the time came to 
tax him everybody said, " He is impoverished and 
will be taken up for debt ; " and one said, " He 
speaks truth, for one morning he did not even dare 
to come out of his house ; " and another remarked, 
"So he said to me;" and, "Well, if it be so, one 
must treat him as if he were poor," was the universal 
decision. Consequently all of one accord lent to him 
as if he were a beggar or worse. Having thus 
borrowed, and the danger passed, Bartolo once more 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 117 

began to come out of his house, saying that he was 
arranging with his creditors ; and in this wise, with 
much talk, he freed himself from his debts, while 
many others richer than he were ruined. 

The times were ripening. Of the ancient proverbial 
simplicity amid all this great thirst for gain there 
only remained as living monuments a few old men 
greatly respected. Of these Velluti has preserved 
to us a graphic description that is as living and 
vigorous as one of the figures painted by Andrea del 
Castagno : — 

" Buonaccorso di Piero was a valiant strong man, 
and very sure in arms. He performed many a bold 
and noble deed, whether for his own commune or 
that of others. So many wounds had he received in 
wars and fights that he was disfigured by numberless 
scars. He was a great opponent of the Paterini and 
heretics. He was of good height, strong-limbed and 
well built. He lived full one hundred and twenty 
years, but during the last twenty he was blind from old 
age. Although he was so old, his fibre was so tough 
that he could not be thrown, and by taking a young 
man by the shoulders he could make him sit down. 
He thoroughly understood all matters of trade and 
did everything loyally. It was believed that many 
cloths that came from Milan, of which a great number 
were ordered, and which were sold before the bales 
were opened, were dyed here ; and I heard that a 
certain agent, Giovanni del Volpe, seeing that the 
cloth sold so well, thought of saving for his firm by 



ii8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

dyeing In a cheaper and inferior way, so that after a 
while these cloths were not so much sought after as 
before. Inquiring into the reason, it was discovered 
that it was owing to the cunning of Giovanni ; and 
Buonaccorso, hearing of this, wanted to kill him. 
Buonaccorso having lost his sight, mostly stopped 
at home. Behind his palace in Via Magglo there was 
a long balcony which went the length of the building, 
and on this opened three rooms. Here he walked 
up and down so much every morning that he covered 
three or four miles. After this he broke his fast 
with no less than two loaves ; then at dinner he ate 
well, for he was a hearty eater ; and so he passed his 
life. Now as to how he died : I heard my father 
say that, wanting to go to the fireplace, he burnt his 
foot, so that he could no longer take his daily exercise 
on the balcony, after which he then and there declared 
himself dead. Now it happened that his son Fllippo, 
my grandfather, took in second marriage Monna 
Gemma dei Pulcl ; and Buonaccorso, having that day 
chatted much, twitting his son, saying that he needed 
a wife to help him more than he did, and much more 
such talk, expressed a wish to go from his bed to 
his couch ; so he called my father and Gerardo his 
grandson, and as he put his arms round their necks 
and shoulders to raise himself, suddenly by reason of 
great age his life failed him and he died." 

With the memory of this beloved and good patri- 
archal image fresh in our minds, let us hurry on to 
the new era and the new century, whose glorious dawn 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 119 

already gilded the sky of literature and art. The 
preliminary signs had made themselves felt in the 
growth of wealth, in the enfranchisement from the 
old prejudices as well as from the severe rules of the 
old way of living, in the egotistical tendencies which 
prepared the way for the evolution of what we moderns 
call individualism. By all these signs and tokens we 
recognise the character of the men and the life of the 
Renaissance. The affection for a common country 
and even family was weakened by an acute craving 
for pleasure ; incredulity, scepticism, and sensuality 
threatened to obtain the upper hand. After the 
passing away of the dread terrors of the plague, these 
generations must almost have wondered to find them- 
selves alive. From the beginning of the great mortality 
of 1348 to the early years of the fifteenth century, 
the chroniclers register no less than six such epidemics, 
though some were of comparatively minor deadliness. 
By consulting the registers of the dead preserved in the 
archives of the Grascia, it is possible to ascertain that 
from the ist of May to the i8th of September, 1400, 
there occurred no fewer than 10,908 deaths, of which 
the greater part were children. Of the plague of 
1348, besides the classical and splendid description 
of Boccaccio, we can discover vivid and sad records 
amid the family chronicles in the diaries and memo- 
randa of the day. It must have been a dreadful and 
awe-inspiring sight. Giovanni Morelli tells us how 
in one hour a friend or neighbour was laughing and 
joking, and the next he was dead. People fell down 



120 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

dead in the streets and at their benches ; fell down 
dead when alone, without the help or comfort of a 
human being. Many went mad and threw themselves 
into the wells or the Arno, or from out of their 
windows, driven to this by great sorrow or panic or 
fear. Many and many died unseen, many were buried 
before the breath had left their bodies. One might 
see the cross-bearing priests who had gone to fetch 
a corpse take up two or three on their way to the 
church. It is calculated that in Florence alone two- 
thirds of the population died — that is, 18,000 persons. 
Of the epidemic of 1400 a detailed description is 
given in a letter of Ser Lapo Mazzei : " Here shops 
are hardly open any more ; the rulers are not at their 
post ; the police are without superiors. No one weeps 
for the dead." It was an awful visitation ; children 
died, friends, neighbours and relations fell victims ; 
there was no longer any means of recording even the 
names of the dead. The number of victims who were 
struck down in the summer alone reached the figure 
of one hundred a day, and on one day in July it rose 
to no fewer than two hundred. Of the epidemic of 
1420, Gregorio Dati writes in his Libro Segreto — that 
is to say, his diary : — 

" The pestilence was in our house. It began 
with the man-servant Paccino, about the end of June, 
1420. Within three days later our slave Martha died. 
On the ist of July my daughter Sandra, and on the 5th 
Antonia. We left the house and went into one 
opposite. In a io."^ days Veronica died. Again we 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 121 

moved and went to live in Via Chiara. Here Bandecca 
and Pippa were taken ill, and on the ist of August both 
went to heaven. They all died of the plague. Heaven 
help them ! " 

Those who could escaped to Arezzo, Bologna, 
Romagna, or any city or country where they thought 
they would be safe. It was the rule to go to any 
place where the plague had already been. Remedies 
against the mysterious sickness there seemed to be 
none. Morelli lays down some rules that to-day 
would be called hygienic : — 

*' The pestilence of 1348 was caused by a terrible 
famine. The year before, it happened that in Florence 
there was great hunger ; we lived on herbs and reeds, 
and very bad they were ; all the country was full 
of people, who went about feeding on grass like 
beasts, and thus became predisposed to contract the 
disease, and there was no help for this." 

This chronicler counsels people to keep themselves 
in good condition ; to be careful to eat well and 
avoid damp ; to spend generously and without stint 
or economy ; to refrain from melancholy and gloom ; 
not to think of dull, sorrowful things ; to play, ride, 
amuse themselves, and be happy. 

The survivors from the scourge must have quickly 
accustomed themselves to the tenor of the new life, 
once the danger was over. One result of the plague 
was the institution of processions of "white penitents," 
resembling those which in the previous century tra- 
versed all Europe under the name of '' The Company 



122 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

of the Crushed." Folk left their homes in crowds, 
both men and women, laymen and ecclesiastics, all 
mingling together, dressed in white cloaks which 
covered their faces and wearing a crucifix as their 
badge. They walked in procession from place to 
place, singing lauds and supplicating Misericordia in 
loud voices ; at night they lay in the open air, and 
only asked for bread and water. The people of the 
cities they visited caught their fervour and went in 
like order to visit other towns. On the appearance 
of these pious pilgrims every one was moved to 
repentance ; enmities were laid aside, discordant 
factions were pacified, and the towns put on a show 
of sanctity. Some vicious persons in Florence sought 
to profit by this agitation and liberate the prisoners 
from the Stinche^ but fortunately they were hindered. 
Francesco Datini, a merchant from Prato and a great 
benefactor to his town, though otherwise a man of 
dubious morality, who ill-treated his wife and pre- 
ferred his slave in her presence, also went on a 
pilgrimage in August, 1399, dressed in white linen 
and barefooted, together with his family, friends, and 
neighbours. They were twelve in all, and had with 
them two horses and a mule. On these beasts they 
put two trunks in which were boxes filled with all 
manner of good things to eat — cheese of every kind, 
fresh bread and biscuits, plain and sweet tarts, and 
other such tit-bits of daily life — so much so that the 
beasts were quite overladen with the burden of the 
victuals. This pilgrimage lasted ten days, and went 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 123 

as far as Arezzo. Wherever they passed they bought 
eatables. This making of pilgrimages on horseback, 
well supplied with food, was certainly a gay and 
comfortable way of doing penance. The more in- 
telligent and incredulous barely respected the outward 
forms of religion. Datini, for example, only feared 
the upbraidings and reproaches of his friend and 
spiritual mentor, Ser Lapo Mazzei. Others, like 
Buonaccorso Pitti, furnish us with the type of a man 
of the Renaissance who had no fixed residence, who 
wandered over the world tormented with inner rest- 
lessness ; who gambled, lost, and traded ; who meddled 
with commerce and politics, just like an adventurer 
of the eighteenth century, like Benvenuto Cellini, 
but without his art and with far less intelligence. A 
curious, strange type this Pitti, who seemed as though 
bitten by a tarantula, living by his wits, the intimate 
of Charles VI., of dukes and princes, who for a wager 
with the girl he loved rode straight away to Rome 
without stopping ; a great dancer, an inveterate 
gambler, a brave and loyal cavalier, who in time rose 
to the highest offices. Burckhardt calls him a fore- 
runner of Casanova ; like him, journeying continually 
in the quality of merchant and political agent, diplomat 
and professional gambler. He lost and won enormous 
sums, finding rivals only among princes like the Dukes 
of Brabant, Bavaria, and Savoy. This was the father 
of that Luca Pitti who in riches and magnificence 
rivalled the Medici and tried in all things to vie with 
Cosimo. 



124 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The merchants, grown immeasurably rich, thanks 
to their traffic, their journeys, their visits to the factories 
established in all the commercial centres and ports of 
Europe, had developed into bankers and money-lenders, 
feeling the times to be ripe when they could tranquilly 
enjoy the fruits of their exertions. Once the factions 
quieted that had quarrelled concerning her, Florence, 
like a lovely, prosperous maiden of good parts and 
abundant dowry, closed her eyes under the shade of 
the Medicean laurels, dazzled by the magnificence with 
which, womanlike, she had allowed herself to be con- 
quered. Now that the families had acquired property, 
they sought to found houses, they looked out for suitable 
marriages, which were discussed as though they were 
political alliances. Alessandra Macinghi degli Strozzi 
went to mass every morning in Santa Reparata to sit 
behind the girls whom she would like her son Filippo 
to marry, and with the eye of a future mother-in-law 
studied, examined, criticised, and wrote about them 
to her son, as though the matter in hand were a 
bargain about a horse. It is true that Alessandra, 
to our mind, has been too much exalted and praised ; 
she must have had the heart of a merchant, not that 
of a woman. That she laid hands upon her slaves 
she frankly confesses herself. This, however, was the 
custom of the day ; it was, perhaps, easy to lose one's 
temper with those Russians and Tartars. But con- 
cerning her charity, we have stumbled on a curious 
document. It concerns two old people, only survivors 
of a family of labourers. " Piero and Monna Cilia are 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 125 

both alive and infirm. I have let the farm for next 
year, and as I must put it in order, these two old 
people, if they do not die, must go and beg. Heaven 
will provide." Nor is this a passing thought ; it was 
a firm resolve. In a letter written a few months later, 
we read : " Piero is still alive " (Heaven had already 
provided for Monna Cilia, it seems), " so he must 
put up v/ith it and go away and beg. It would be 
best, of course, if Heaven would take him." Evidently 
it was not possible to combine good farming with a 
good heart, and this little incident probably reflects 
very truly the sentiments of the age in which they 
were uttered. 

But some of those who had increased and multiplied 
their means showed nobler sentiments and finer feelings. 
In Giovanni Rucellai we see the perfect type of the 
Florentine, who appreciated the dignity of the new 
state- in which fortune had placed him ; he had not 
only the gift of making money, but he also under- 
stood how to spend it well, no less a virtue. 

" I think," he writes in his Zibaldone^ " that it has 
brought me more honour to have spent well than 
earned well, and brought more contentment to my 
spirit, especially the work that I have done in my 
house." He thanks Heaven for having made him 
" a rational being — a Christian and not a Turk, Moor, 
or Tartar ; and for having been born in Italy, which 
is the most worthy and noble portion of Christendom, 
and in the province of Tuscany, which is the most 
highly respected amid the provinces of Italy, and. 



126 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

above all, in the city of Florence, reputed the noblest 
and most beautiful city, not only in Christendom, but 
in the whole universal world ; and finally, for living 
in the present age, held to be, by those who know, 
the greatest that our city has ever seen since it was 
founded, as well as for living in the time of the 
magnificent citizen Cosimo dei Medici." He also 
expresses his gratitude to Heaven for having granted 
him the favour of becoming allied to this great man, 
through the marriage of his son Bernardo with Nan- 
nina, daughter of Piero and niece of Cosimo — a 
splendid connection, of which Rucellai was justly 
proud. 

In those days, without fear of the sumptuary laws 
now fallen into disuse, Florence celebrated the nuptial 
feasts of her great families with all the splendour 
she could muster. The wedding of Baccio Adimari 
and Lisa Ricasoli, which took place in 1420, is 
represented in a well-known old picture that hangs 
in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. We see 
the happy couple and their friends dancing to the 
accompaniment of trunipets and fifes, under a striped 
awning of various colours. This marriage and 
that of the Rucellai and Medici furnish us with a 
graphic picture of life in those days. Fortunately, 
too, the great old man, in his Zihaldone^ has em- 
balmed a record of the latter festivity in a description 
full of loving remembrance, which has become a 
precious document for the student of the manners 
and customs of the day. Gilded by the flaming sun 



iiiiiiil 



'mmmnHm 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 127 

of June, green festoons swung proudly across the 
street which was the scene of the wedding, festoons 
that brought into high relief the shields which 
ornamented the house-fronts, and which were 
quartered half with the arms of the Medici and half 
with those of the Rucellai. The rude stones of the 
palace facade, which Giovanni Rucellai's generosity 
had caused him to rebuild some years before, choosing 
as its architect Leon Battista Alberti, acquired a new 
aspect thus bedecked with bright awnings and festoons 
that hung from the Doric pilasters of the first floor 
and over the Corinthian pilasters of the second and 
third. Opposite the palace, in the little piazza in 
front of the loggia^ had been erected a platform 
in the shape of a triangle ; this was covered over 
to protect it from the sun by a canopy of blue cloth 
adorned with, wreaths, between which peeped the 
freshest roses. Below, on the wooden planks, were 
laid tapestries, and precious tapestries also covered 
the benches placed round for the convenience of those 
who waited. The ends of the great blue velarium 
hung down here and there to the ground like aerial 
columns. On one side of that great tent there was 
a large sideboard, on which glittered silver vessels 
and dishes wrought by the best gold and silver smiths 
in Florence. The richness of these adornments pre- 
saged the magnificence of the banquet that was 
preparing. The kitchen had been placed in the street 
by the side of the palace, where, counting cooks and 
underlings, fifty persons were at work. The noise 



128 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

was great ; Via della Vigna was crowded with people 
from one end to the other. The men who had decked 
the facade were succeeded by the servants who carried 
the presents from friends, clients, and relations ; 
peasants, gardeners, and shop-people brought victuals ; 
pipers and trumpeters were preparing their music, 
and the cavaliers were making ready for the tilting- 
match. That Sunday, June 8, 1466, soon after dawn, 
the crowd began to arrive from all sides at the palace 
where the wedding was to take place. There also 
came, welcome and promising sight to the curious, 
quartered bullocks, casks of Greek wine, and as many 
capons as could hang on a staff, borne on the shoulders 
of two stout peasants ; bars of buffalo-cheese, turkeys 
in pairs, barrels of ordinary wine and choice sweet 
wine, baskets full of pomegranates, hampers of large 
sea-fish, crates of little silver-scaled fish from the 
Arno, birds, hares, cream-cheeses packed in fresh 
green rushes, baskets full of sweetmeats, tarts, and 
other delicate confectionery, prepared by the fair 
hands of some gentle nun. There advanced slowly, 
shaking its leafy head as it stood on the cart, 
drawn by panting oxen, a splendid olive-tree from 
Carmignano, as well as young oaks procured from 
the Villa at Sesto, not to mention the flowers that 
glad season gave in such profusion. The presents, 
worthy of those who sent them, enhanced the magni- 
ficence of the feast, testifying to the love and reverence 
the donors bore towards the two illustrious families 
about to be allied by these nuptials. Thus by this 




Photo] [Aliiian'. 

THE HOLY SEPULCHRE IN THE RUCELLAI CHATEL, SAN PANCRAZIO. 

[Til face pdi^c 129. 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 129 

marriage old Giovanni Rucellai did away with all 
suspicion of being an enemy to the Medici faction, 
which had grown stronger in Florence since the exile 
of Cosimo. It was a connection planned with much 
judgment, and which brought as much honour to 
his family as did the facade of Santa Maria Novella, 
which he caused Alberti to build, the chapel of San 
Pancrazio, the Palace, and the beautiful Corinthian 
loggia in Via della Vigna. That majestic old man, 
with high, open forehead, acquiline nose, and piercing 
blue eyes, that still look out at us from an old portrait, 
had a subtle wit. His thick black hair falls in close 
curls on to his shoulders ; a long wavy beard rests 
on his breast, preserving a few gold threads mixed 
with the grey of years ; his fresh colouring denotes 
a vigorous old age. We see him seated in a large 
armchair, covered with fringed crimson velvet, em- 
bossed with gold. He wears a dark green tunic, 
covered by a purple gown with turnovers of crimson 
velvet ; his upward-looking eyes have a far-away gaze, 
as though he were thinking of things not of this world. 
The right hand, adorned with a ring set with a large; 
diamond, rests heavily on the arm of a chair ; the left, 
which is open, points to a handsomely bound MS., the 
title of which is Delle Antichita. Beside it are a few 
open letters with the address, " To the Illustrissimo 
Signor Giovanni Rucellai." Behind a dark curtain, 
against a blue background, are painted with much care 
and diligence the works he had executed in stone and 
marble, the facade of Santa Maria Novella, the chapel 

9 



130 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

of San Pancrazio, the Palace and the loggia. Thus 
the picture sums up both the man and his glory, the 
rich merchant who had become related to Cosimo di 
Giovanni dei Medici. 

Giovanna dei Medici came to her wedding accom- 
panied, as was the custom, by four cavaliers, chosen 
from among the elders of the city — Messer Manno 
Temperani, Messer Carlo Pandolfini, Messer Giovan- 
nozzo Pitti, and Messer Tommaso Soderini. *' I will 
come" was written on certain cards which were hung on 
the benches covered with arras, and placed under the 
gay pavilion ; and the bride did come, and on that plat- 
form, made soft with rich carpets, the guests danced 
and played, waiting for the dinners and supper. 
There came to the wedding fifty gentlewomen richly 
dressed, and fifty gentle youths in beautiful costumes. 
The gaieties lasted from Sunday morning till Tuesday 
evening, and there were meals twice a day. Usually 
there were asked to each meal fifty persons, including 
relations, friends, and the chief citizens : so that at 
the first table there were, counting the women and 
girls of the house, trumpeters and pipers, about one 
hundred and seventy persons ; at the second and third 
tables — the so-called low tables — there sat a large 
number of persons. At one meal they amounted 
to five hundred. The dishes, those prescribed by 
custom, were exquisite and abundant. On Sunday 
morning they had boiled capons and tongue, a roast 
of meat, and another of small chickens garnished with 
sugar and rosewater ; in the evening, galantine, roast 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 131 

meat and chickens with fritters. Monday morning, 
blancmanger, boiled capons with sausages and roast 
chickens ; in the evening the usual courses, with tarts 
of sugar and almonds. On Tuesday morning, roast 
meat and quails ; in the evening the usual roast and 
galantine. At the refreshments there appeared twenty 
confectioners, who distributed a profusion of caramels 
made of pine-seed. The expenses of these banquets 
amounted to above 1 50,000 francs — an immense sum 
in those days. There had been bought 70 bushels 
of bread, 2,900 white loaves, 4,000 wafers, 50 barrels 
of sweet white wine, 1,500 couple of poultry, 1,500 
eggs, 4 calves, 20 large basins of galantine ; 1 2 cataste 
of wood were burnt in the kitchen fires. Verily it 
seemed the reign of abundance. On Tuesday evening, 
some cavaliers invited to the wedding performed jousts, 
moving from the Rucellai Palace up to the Tornaquinci, 
and afterwards in the Via Larga under the Medici 
Palace. The bride received from her different 
relations no fewer than twenty rings, and six more 
from the bridegroom — two when he fetched her, 
two for the espousals, and two on the morning they 
exchanged rings. From Bernardo she received a 
hundred florins and some other coin, with which 
she made herself two handsome dresses, one of white 
velvet richly trimmed with pearls, silk, and gold, with 
open sleeves lined with pure white fur ; one of zeiani^ 
a stuff of very thick silk, trimmed with pearls, and 
the sleeves lined with ermine. She had also a gown 
of white damask brocaded with gold flowers, the 



132 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

sleeves trimmed with pearls ; another of silk with 
crimson, gold and brocaded sleeves, besides other 
dresses, and over-dresses, so-called giornee. Among 
the jewels given her was a rich necklet of diamonds, 
rubies and pearls, which was worth 100,000 gold 
florins, a pin for her hair, a necklace of pearls with 
a large pointed diamond, a hood embroidered with 
pearls, and a net for her hair, also worked with pearls. 
The dowry, which to-day would seem modest, was 
60,000 francs, including the trousseau, in which was 
included a pair of chests with richly worked edges, 
and several long dresses of different shapes for every- 
day wear, made of fine stuffs embroidered ; also a lawn 
shift, fashioned out of material that came from Rheims, 
a hood of crimson cloth wrought with pearls, two caps 
with silver, pearls and diamonds, a little illuminated 
missal with silver clasps, and an infant Jesus in wax, 
wearing a damask dress trimmed with pearls. Besides 
this, there was cloth in the piece, satins, velvets, and 
damasks, embroidered cushions, belts, purses, thimbles, 
needlecases, ivory combs, four pairs of gloves, a 
Milanese hat with fringe, eight pairs of stockings, 
three mirrors, a basin and ewer of enamelled silver, 
an embroidered fan, and many other things specified 
in detail. 

Three years after, in June, 1469, was celebrated 
with true princely prodigality the marriage of Lorenzo 
dei Medici and Clarice Orsini, which proved a public 
feast, a true carnival. " Tu, felix Florentia, nube." 
We will not stop to describe it, though there is 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 133 

ample information about it to be found in the account 
which Piero Parenti sent to his maternal uncle, Filippo 
di Matteo Strozzi, then living at Naples, the founder 
of the beautiful Strozzi Palace in Florence, that 
monument to the greatness of the family. These 
banquets, with their magnificence, embarrassed many 
of the gentlewomen invited to them, for they were 
bound to appear in dresses that would do honour 
to the dignity of their families, in robes and gowns 
of costly brocade and damask. Hence Filippo 
Strozzi's wife, the lovely and good Fiammetta 
Adimari, a careful woman, took advantage of her 
husband's absence to feign illness in order not to 
be present at the feast. We will follow her example, 
and search instead in contemporary documents for 
some signs of intimate domestic life, which grew more 
rare amid so much public show. 

It is pleasant to find this in the little letters which 
the son of that bride and bridegroom, Piero dei 
Medici, wrote to his father when away from home, 
he being left to the care of his pedagogue, Messer 
Agnolo Poliziano. Much may be forgiven to Piero 
dei Medici for the sake of these infantine letters, 
written with the unsteady hand of a five-year-old 
child, in which appeared his first weak efforts at 
Latin, which his master did not correct. In 1476, 
then barely five, he wrote from the Villa to his 
grandmother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, with the petu- 
lance of an over-petted, spoiled child: "Send us 
some more figs, I mean those very ripe ones, and 



134 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

send us some peaches with their kernels, and other 
of those things which you know we like, sweetmeats 
and tarts and some such little things." 

In 1478 he tells his father that he has already 
learned many verses of Virgil, " and I know the 
first book of Teodoro by heart, and I think I under- 
stand it ; " he means Teodoro Gaza's Greek grammar ; 
" and the master makes me decline and examines me 
every day." The year after, he writes more easily : 
" I wish you would send me some of the best setters 
that there are. I don't want anything else. The 
company here, everybody, specially desires to be 
remembered to you, and so do L I pray you to 
be careful of the pestilence and to bear us in mind, 
because we are little and have need of you." Another 
time, after a while, he makes use of his Latin to 
ask for bigger favours. " That little horse has not 
yet made its appearance " (" Nondum venit equulus 
ille, magnifice pater ") ; and he already begins to 
take a high tone with his younger brothers and 
sisters. " Guglielmo thinks of nothing else but 
laughter ; Lucrezia sews, sings, and reads ; Madda- 
lena knocks her head against the wall without hurting 
herself; Contessina makes a great noise all over the 
house." Then he adds, " To give a tone to my 
letters I have always written them in Latin, and 
yet I have not had the little horse you promised me, 
so that everybody laughs at me." 

Nevertheless the little horse did not come. " I 
am afraid something must have happened to the 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 135 

horse, because if it had been all right you would 
have sent it to me as you promised. If that one 
cannot come, please send me another," At last the 
horse arrived, and a letter full of thanks and promises 
of good behaviour closes this childish correspondence. 
But the curious sketch of Medicean domestic life, 
which has the country for background, and for stage 
one of those villas to which they loved to retreat 
to forget awhile political vexations, brings before us 
another aspect of the time — that desire for country 
quiet, the love for the villa and the sentiment for 
nature which are distinguishing characteristics of the 
men of the Renaissance. We already see signs of 
this in Ser Lapo Mazzei, who used to go to Grignano 
to attend the harvests and the vintage and who 
trimmed his own vines. Buonaccorso Pitti, like 
Petrarch, loved to count the trees in his garden ; 
Rucellai was prouder of his villa at Quaracchi, of 
which he gives us a more loving description, than 
of his splendid palace ; Pandolfini, or the compiler 
of The Government of the Family^ sang the praises of 
country-life ; Poliziano wrote a short essay on the 
theme for his pupils to turn into Latin, and on the 
background of a flowery landscape he painted the 
image of the beautiful Simonetta Cattaneo. Lorenzo 
dei Medici, even in the midst of his greatness as 
governor, almost prince, knew how to retain a certain 
benevolent kindness that was quite homely and 
Florentine ; nor did he dislike mingling with the 
people at the hostelry of the Porta Sa,n Gallo. Here 



136 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

he celebrated the beauties of the rustic maiden 
Nencia, and he ever retained a certain middle-class 
sobriety. Borghini tells us that Francesco Cibo, at 
the marriage of his daughter, was treated by Lorenzo 
with great simplicity and even parsimony, while his 
companions, Roman cavaliers and barons, were received 
sumptuously. The Magnifico explained this attitude 
by saying reassuringly, " These lords I honour as 
guests and strangers ; you, instead, I treat like one 
of the family." He gave audience to his clients 
in the streets, by his own fireside, or walking in a 
friendly manner about the streets of Florence. 
Florentine to the very core, he did not dislike 
appearing facetious. At Pisa, seeing a pupil who 
squinted, he said that he would be the best in the 
class. Being asked why, he answered, " Because he 
will read both pages of the book at once, and so 
will learn double." Still, under this simple appear- 
ance were nurtured the designs of a cunning politician, 
who, as Vettori writes, " By inducing the citizens 
to devote themselves to art and pleasure, to the 
protection of artists of every description, he caused 
them to become the instruments of his future power." 
Under the Medicean rule palaces and convents rose 
up, in which antiquities, works of art and costly 
manuscripts were accumulated. In the gardens artists 
gathered together ; to the supper-parties came poets 
and philosophers ; jousts and tournaments succeeded 
each other, poetical concourses vied with these feasts, 
and the political clients of the palace were reinforced by 



PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 137 

the great artists from the humble shops. Savonarola, 
who guessed the secret thoughts of the tyrant, said, 
*' He diverts the people with tournaments and feasts 
that they may think of themselves and not of him." 
Florence in those times beheld new customs come 
to life, and listened to many kinds of poetry, from 
the triumphs and masquerades in the streets to the 
Platonic banquets at Careggi, from Carnival songs 
and sweet ballads to country-dances and sacred 
representations. The thoughtless gaiety, and the ease 
with which both spiritual and material desires were 
gratified, seemed to compensate the people for their 
diminished liberty. The gratified city, which had 
now for so long resounded with lively, festive clamour, 
gaily welcomed the great Medicean Carnival with its 
sumptuous banquets, its processions directed by famous 
artists and ordered by the brotherhoods of the different 
quarters. Renascent paganism invaded the religious 
feasts and transformed these processions for its own 
end. " In Carnival," says Cambi, sadly, " the city 
was made to seem happy and well-to-do." Folk 
danced in the New Market, and in the Piazza della 
Signoria were held shows of wild beasts, when some- 
times the lions were let loose in the hope that some 
terrible scene might take place. But the Florentine 
lion was so tame, so humble, that it proved as quiet 
as a lamb. In front of the Medici Palace in Via 
Larga, jongleurs came in crowds to celebrate the 
triumphs of love. For the arrival of Francesco 
Cibo, lately married to Maddalena, daughter of 



138 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Lorenzo il Magnifico, there were shows in all the 
shops, pretty and rich things, stuffs and brocade, 
jewels, pearls, and silver plate, articles of wonderful 
and surprising beauty. On St. John's Day was per- 
formed a beautiful spectacle of clouds and spirits, 
cars and other fairy edifices, popular contrivances to 
pass the time, besides all the other gaieties of the 
season. Magnificent races were held ; the tower of 
the Palazzo Vecchio was red amid the crackling of the 
fireworks. On the occasion of the coming of orator 
or at the creation of knights, the noble Signoria was 
wont to hold solemn ceremonies, of which we find 
record in the book of Francesco Filarete, herald to 
the Republic. In 149 1, on St. John's Day, Lorenzo 
had set up fifteen erections representing the triumph 
of Paolo Emilio after his return from Macedonia, 
when he brought with him so much treasure that for 
many years the Romans were free from taxes. It 
seemed as though the golden age had come back. 
The Medicean jousts which had inspired Poliziano's 
muse stimulated the other citizens to commit mad 
extravagances. Benedetto Salutati, nephew of Messer 
Coluccio, for the tournament of 1467 put on the 
housings, head-gear, and other trappings of two horses 
one hundred and seventy pounds of fine silver, which 
he caused to be beautifully worked by the hand of 
Antonio Pollajolo ; and around the robes of the 
sergeants he strung thirty pounds of pearls, the greater 
part of which were of immense value. Florence 
beautified itself with splendid palaces ; Filippo Strozzi, 




'^' ^^ 






PRIVATE LIFE OF THE FLORENTINES 139 

on August 6, 1489, laid the foundation of his stately 
pile, and Guglielmo Gondi, a short time after, followed 
his example. The people were proud of these new 
buildings, and good Tribaldo dei Rossi asked his 
wife Nannina to send him his two children, newly 
dressed, that he might take them to see the laying 
of the corner-stone of the Strozzi Palace. " I took," 
he writes, " Guarnieri in my arms, and told him to 
look down there. I gave him a coin with a lily 
to throw down, also a bunch of little damask roses 
which I had in my hand. I said, ' Will you remember 
this ? ' He said, * Yes.' The children came with our 
servant Rita, and Guarnieri, who was on that day just 
four years old, had a new cloak made by Nannina of 
shot green-and-yellow silk." The children as well as 
the older citizens must have been struck by the sur- 
prising marvels which the Medicean magnificence 
displayed for their benefit. Every day some new 
and singular thing occurred — princely jousts and 
processions, magnificent feasts. De Rossi, a simple 
chronicler, has kept for us a record of these events. 
In 1488 there came to Florence, as a present from 
the Sultan of Babylonia to Lorenzo, a giraffe which 
was seven braccias high, led by two Turks. Great 
curiosity was awakened in every one, even in the 
nuns, so that it was needful to send the strange 
beast around to the convents to be inspected. " It 
eats everything, poking its head into every peasant's 
basket, and would take an apple from a child's hand, 
so gentle is it. It died on January 2, 1489, and every- 
body lamented it, for it was such a beautiful animal," 



140 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Suddenly, quite suddenly, this easy mirthful life, 
this dazzling splendour of art and poetry, this 
thoughtless gaiety, was extinguished in sadness and 
gloom. A tempest murmured in the distance. The 
proud Dominican shut up in his monastery of 
San Marco, far from the uproar of the Carnival, 
threatened resuscitated paganism with celestial anger. 
On April 8, 1492, there fell like a public calamity 
the news that Lorenzo dei Medici was dead. " The 
splendour, not of Tuscany only, but of the whole of 
Italy, has disappeared," writes Dei. " The company of 
the Mazzi laid the body in the sacristy of San Lorenzo, 
and the following day the funeral services took place 
without that pomp which is customary for nobles ; but 
simply, devoid of hangings and canopies, with three 
orders of friars and only one of priests. For no matter 
how pompous the ceremony might have been, it would 
always have proved too mean for so great a man." 

Thus with lugubrious obsequies in the chill twilight 
of the Laurentian sepulchre, with the remains of the 
Magnifico were laid to rest the memories of a whole 
age radiant with youth and glory. With Lorenzo 
there disappeared the world of the Renaissance, for 
but a little time afterwards Tribaldo de Rossi 
writes : *' A letter has come to the Signoria saying 
that certain youths, gone out in sailing-ships, have 
arrived at an immense island, to which never before 
have any people sailed, and which is inhabited by 
men and women all naked." 

A new world had been discovered ! 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 




Photo'] 



THE SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO. 



\_Alinari. 
[To face f>age 142. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 

I 

TN the picture gallery bequeathed to the town of 
-*- Brescia by Count Tosio hangs a painting by 
Alessandro Bonvicino, surnamed II Moretto. Here, 
standing out from a dark background of laurel 
branches, is seen the half-length figure of a youthful 
and very beautiful woman, her head slightly inclined 
towards her left shoulder and holding in her left 
hand a long, slender golden rod topped by a sceptre- 
like ornament. As though weary, she leans upon a 
square marble pedestal upon which is cut an inscription 
in Latin ; she wears a rich dress of blue velvet, partly 
concealed by a fur mantle lined with red velvet, and 
blue ribbons and strings of large pearls are twisted 
through her hair. A certain Raphaelesque grace 
unites with the vivid colouring of the Venetian painters 
in lending charm to the lovely face, out of which 
look two great pensive eyes — those unforgettable eyes 
which the love-poets of old used to call " burning 
stars," but which we moderns describe as *' fateful 

eyes." The face is a pure oval, the ear of perfect 

143 



144 MEN AND MANNERS OE OLD FLORENCE 

shape ; the lightly waving hair is parted in the middle 
and coiled round the head, the pose of which enables 
the spectator to admire the splendid line of the neck, 
rising like a fair white column from the laces which 
conceal the delicate beauty of the shoulder. The 
well-shaped hand, issuing also from a frill of lace, is 
as white as " polished ivory or shining alabaster," and 
on the tapering fingers with their rosy nails have 
been bestowed the most careful strokes of the painter's 
brush. 

This portrait, according to long-established tradi- 
tion, is that of Tullia of Arragon, although the words 
duae sacrum Joannis caput obtinuity engraved upon 
the marble base on which the fair lady leans her arm, 
have also given rise to the supposition that it repre- 
sents Salome. In this case, however, laurels would 
be out of place, and nothing in the portrait itself 
points to it as being the vindictive daughter of 
Herodias. But seeing that the picture formerly be- 
longed to a convent of nuns, from one of whom Count 
Tosio purchased it about the year 1829, some thirty 
years after the suppression of the religious bodies, it 
is not improbable that the inscription alluding to 
Salome was nothing more than a pious fib added by 
the nuns themselves for the purpose of concealing 
under a name well known in sacred history one 
rendered all too famous in profane chronicles. 

Bonvicino's portrait must be a good likeness. The 
beauty of Tullia of Arragon was sung by a chorus 
of poets from all parts of Italy ; whoever saw and 



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TULLIA OF ARRAGON. 



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TULLIA OF ARRAGON 145 

knew her fell captive to the charm of her appearance, 
the sound of her voice, the courtesy of her manner, 
and the sweetness of her words. Her eyes seem to 
have possessed some magic power ; poets declared 
they were "the torches wherewith Love inflamed all 
hearts," whilst her " fair golden locks " were the net 
he spread to catch souls. 

Tullia of Arragon was a famous beauty and a 
poetess of some merit in her day, a lady who figured 
under her own or fictitious names as the heroine of 
countless songs, tales, and sonnets. But it was not 
only as a beauty and a poetess that she was famous, 
for documents of unquestionable authority place it 
beyond doubt that she was a woman who, following 
in the maternal footsteps, turned her beauty to pro- 
fitable uses. But she was no vulgar courtesan ; far 
from it. Pietro Aretino's portrait of Zaffetta might 
well describe Tullia : ** The methods you employ are 
far removed from any fraud," are his words addressed 
to her ; "I give the palm to you in preference to all 
others, for you understand better than any how to 
cover an impudent face with an honest mask, obtaining 
gifts and praises by wise and discreet means. You 
are modest in all your affairs, accepting what is given 
you without violently seizing what is withheld. You 
do not arouse jealousy by planting suspicion in the 
minds of those who never thought of it. Lying, envy, 
and evil-speaking, the fifth element of the courtesan, 
do not hold your mind and tongue in continual em- 
ployment. You prize virtue and honour the virtuous, 

10 



146 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

which is not usually the custom with those who sell 
their favours for a price." 

To pay honour to virtue and the virtuous was also 
Tullia's custom, for she did not lack the advantages 
of culture and a good education. Brought up at 
Siena, whither her mother had taken her in her earliest 
youth, she acquired the Siennese accent, supposed to 
be the best in Italy. Boasting that noble blood ran 
in her veins, she bore herself in public with a certain 
haughty reserve, whilst her feminine cunning, learnt 
in the shrewd school of the famous courtesan Giulia 
Campana, was gracefully hidden beneath the gentle 
and attractive manners of the poetess and literary 
woman. She played the lute exquisitively, sang with 
a charming voice, and often composed verses which 
still further inflamed the ardour of her numerous 
admirers. The magical gift of song earned for her 
the name of " Alma Sirena," and brought her many 
rhyming praises, not only from the poet Muzio, who 
played a great part in her life, as will be seen later 
on, but even from Alessandro Arrighi ; and this when, 
no longer very young, she came to Florence to turn 
the most sedate and famous heads in the Tuscan 
literary world. 

Thus Tullia's own lovely head was adorned with 
the poet's laurel wreath, twined above the courtesan's 
yellow veil, and her position in the world did not 
prevent her from being honoured and admired by 
the most elect of spirits, or from holding her own 
amongst those who knew how to combine literature 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 147 

with morality. Nowadays we are inclined to pardon 
a great deal in poets and novelists and not to blame 
them too severely if, in their thirst after knowledge 
and experience, they pursue their study of mankind 
somewhat too far ; we may take off our hats in the 
presence of some genuine and overwhelming love, 
holding that the fire of passion ennobles and purifies ; 
but we can only regard as a singular phenomenon 
(only to be explained by the peculiar customs and 
views of the society of that period) those women who, 
instead of seeking to raise themselves into a less 
corrupt atmosphere, persisted in it and even succeeded 
in drawing down the most exalted minds to their own 
level, masking vice with a semblance of virtue, but 
who nevertheless usurped the places and honours which 
should by rights have belonged only to women with 
spotless reputations. 

At the time of the Renaissance, the spirit of Greco- 
Latin antiquity had so thoroughly entered into the 
life of Italian society that it was no longer merely 
the source of culture and learning, but the supreme 
aim of existence itself. The universal endeavour was 
to reproduce the civilisation and culture of the 
ancients, and the classical authority of Plato and 
Aristotle was amply sufficient to stamp as correct any 
divergence from those moral laws which the Catholic 
Church preached, even if it did not always practise 
them. The ancients had Aspasia and Diotima, the 
Athenians paid honour to the hetaera^ therefore it 
was natural and necessary that the Cinquecento should 



148 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

have its famous Imperia, Caterina di San Celso, and 
its TuUia of Arragon. The courtesan of those days 
was a species of hot-house flower which the refine- 
ments of a singular civilisation had caused to bloom 
in the midst of the literary circles of that worldly 
society. It may be said, moreover, that she supplied 
a want, for the literary men, being for the most part 
either priests or beneficed clergy and therefore celi- 
bates, had need of an intelligent woman friend who 
would give them the feminine sympathy and applause 
they could not obtain at home. This intelligent 
sympathy, indeed, was rarely looked for in the family, 
for the housewife of this time was either a fear- 
inspiring virago with a masculine mind, capable of 
protecting her virtue by sheer force of arms, or else 
she was a creature wholly absorbed in domestic matters, 
with no understanding for anything beyond her prayers 
and her pantry. Thus men of letters, who sought 
for charm of mind, for a beauty less austere, who 
wanted a Muse for their verses and a companion for 
their merry feastings, turned to the trained and 
accomplished courtesans, regarding them somewhat 
as one regards a fair flower whose scent and beauty 
one enjoys without inquiring how and where it was 
grown. 

The courtesan was a virtuose; Aretino says of 
TuUia that " the girl learned to be virtuosa and to 
speak Siennese," and like the modern virtuose^ those 
women who had thus acquired celebrity were able to 
mix with the most select society without their presence 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 149 

giving the least offence to any one. Born for pleasure, 
perhaps even the children of pleasure, to pleasure they 
made sacrifice, and nearly all the best educated amongst 
them *' knew all Petrarch and Boccaccio by heart, 
beside innumerable fine Latin verses by Virgil, Horace, 
Ovid, and a thousand other authors." That their 
position was considered an enviable one is proved by 
a letter written by Franco to a Venetian lady, in 
which she questions whether it were not advisable 
to train their daughters as courtesans. Truly, the 
example of the famous Imperia was a dangerous one ! 
Bandello relates that this Imperia, otherwise known 
as Caterina di San Celso, " was loved by all the 
wealthiest and greatest men. Amongst these was a 
certain Signor Angelo dal Bufalo, a rich and worthy 
gentleman, who was devoted to her for many years 
and was ardently loved in return. He gave her a 
splendidly furnished house, with numerous servants, 
and her establishment was such that if some stranger 
had entered he would have supposed it to be the 
dwelling of a princess. The rooms were hung with 
velvet and brocade, and thick carpets covered the 
floors. The walls of the small saloon where she 
received the visits of any great personages who might 
go to see her were covered with cloth of gold, richly 
embroidered, whilst magnificent vases of alabaster, 
porphyry, and other valuable materials, inlaid and 
carven trunks and coffers and all manner of precious 
objects were displayed on all sides. On a table in 
the middle of the room were musical instruments. 



ISO MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and books both in Latin and Italian, for she had been 
taught by Domenico Campana and had so profited by 
her lessons that she composed sonnets and madrigals 
by no means badly." Other women in her position 
were perhaps equally well educated, though less for- 
tunate in their surroundings, and they all hoped to 
end like Caterina di San Celso, for she eventually 
married Messer Gian Francesco Ghiringhello, a wealthy 
gentleman of Milan. 

We must perforce conclude that the position of 
Tullia and her companions was such as to justify them 
in hoping for the best possible good fortune. The 
most respected and exclusive people who had at any 
time been brought into contact with them strove to 
preserve their friendship, because, as Burckhardt ob- 
serves, " passion always leaves behind it an inefface- 
able trace." It is not surprising, therefore, to read 
in Aretino's Ragionamento how Zoppino, turned 
monk, describes to his friend Lodovico the manner 
in which these ladies fill the churches : " For if Loren- 
zina goes," he says, "ten gentlemen accompany her, 
ten others follow and twenty wait for her without ; 
if Matrema goes, she is accompanied not only by ten 
maids and as many pages and servants, but also by 
great princes, that is to say, by marquises, ambassadors, 
and dukes ; Beatrice is attended by as many nobles, Don 
this and Don the other. La Greca has her counts and 
her lords, Beatrice has her prelates, such as bishops, 
poets, and abbots. And Tullia, with many beardless 
youths. . . ." 




Photo] 



PIETRO ARKTIXO, KY TITIAN. 



\Aliiuui. 
\Jo face fiijie 150. 



/ 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 151 

A census of Rome, taken during the pontificate of 
Leo X and brought to light by Signor M. Armellini, 
who judges its date to be somewhere between the years 
151 1 and 1 51 8, gives us a true picture of that which 
was called by Aretino the women s city at the time when 
Giulia Campana, Tullia's mother, was famous there. 
It is only necessary to read the simple, unpolished 
prose of this official document, wherein are numbered, 
district by district, parish by parish, all the houses 
and shops, and the respective proprietors and in- 
habitants, with their nationalities, professions, trades, 
and positions, to obtain a clear idea of the social life 
of that period, and to behold almost with our own 
eyes that Rome of Leo X which gave refuge to the 
fugitive Pier Soderini, who dwelt " near unto Santo 
Biasio de Monte Cetorio," in his own house, which, 
by the irony of chance, was situated on the very 
spot where now stands the building of the Italian 
Parliament ! 

If it were a question of depicting Roman life at 
the time when " Madonna Vanozza, mother of the 
Duke Valentino," lived in the Parione, near Santo 
Stefano in Piscinola, '* in a house divided into three 
shops with three dwellings above," the shops being 
let to two cobblers whose wives were washerwomen, 
and a Florentine carpenter ; whilst in the dwellings 
above lived " Madonna Lactantia, curiale ; Margarita, 
married woman, curiale ; and Madonna Montesina, a 
poor old Spanish woman;" and in the house adjoining 
a blacksmith and a woman of doubtful employment, — 



152 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

we should require so immense a canvas that in order 
to paint thereon the thousands and thousands of 
contrasting figures we should have need of that brush 
whose immortal creations decorate the loggie of the 
Vatican. But a very few facts taken from the census 
will sufRce for our purpose. 

The courtesans registered in this census were exceed- 
ingly numerous and of varying ranks and conditions. 
The well-known hetaer^e^ however, are easily recog- 
nised amongst the crowd, and one of these, TuUia's 
mother, lived in Campo Marzio, in the parish of 
San Trifone, in a house belonging to the Convent 
of Sant' Agostino, She seems to have dwelt in good 
company, and, being a star of the first magnitude of 
this particular firmament, she had, as satellites, " Ma- 
donna Angela of Piacenza," who lived in the next 
house, " Madonna Dionora Vacche of Castille, Madonna 
Mascia de Agnelli of Rome, Madonna Julia of Venice, 
Madonna Catherina the Spaniard," and others, who 
lived close by. Towards the garden of San Biagio, 
in the house belonging to the English hospital, lived 
another famous lady of the same persuasion, with 
a tavern-keeper below ; in Santa Maria in Posterula, 
next to " the house of Messer Raphaelo, where he 
dwelt," lived Madonna Prudensia, while near at hand 
was Madonna Lucretia Scarratona, mentioned by 
Pietro Aretino as being like one of the courtesans 
of the good old time, " who tore up rich brocades as 
though they were merely rags." And so the list 
goes on, with countless names impossible to follow, 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 153 

names divided into classes ranging from the rich 
and fashionable hetaera of recognised position 
(amongst whom figures Tullia herself), down to the 
miserable creatures .who also plied the trades of 
sempstress or laundress. 

The Leonine census thus clearly corroborates what 
we have already asserted. The most exclusive society 
of that time opened its doors to those new Aspasias 
from whose bright eyes poets drew inspiration and 
whose marble limbs served as models for painters 
and sculptors. The courtesans were distributed 
throughout all the districts and parishes of Rome ; 
they lived in the sumptuously furnished palaces of the 
nobles, side by side with the dwellings of gentlemen, 
in houses belonging to religious bodies. Their posi- 
tion was often so prosperous and comfortable that 
they themselves owned houses which ^ they let to 
others. Usually their families lived with them, with- 
out any scruples whatever, and we find them mixing 
with people of every rank and position. Even the 
priests were not afraid of being brought into contact 
with them ; at Arenula, "in the new houses opposite to 
Santa Catherina," we find, beneath the same roof, 
" Messer Isacco Francioso, Madonna Maria and Ma- 
donna Lisabetta Todesche, and Madonna Giovanna, 
Spanish courtesan "; and together with these were " a 
singer and his wife and Messer Biagio, a beneficed 
priest of St. Peter's." In Campo Marzo, near the 
garden of San Biagio, the combination is even more 
curious, for here dwells " the bishop who lives in the 



154 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

house of the Medici, and below him Cosmo Malacollo 
keeps a school for boys, and next door to him dwell 
Vascha and Donna Speranza, courtesans." 

Such were the social and moral conditions into 
which was born TuUia of Arragon, by the banks 
of Father Tiber. 



II 



FOR a long time there was considerable doubt as to 
the birth-place of Tullia of Arragon, but careful 
researches have now established the fact that she first 
saw the light in the Eternal City, and that her mother 
was that Giulia Campana of Ferrara who, on 
account of certain qualities, anything but poetical, 
was numbered amongst the most notorious women 
in Rome. But her very name is now almost forgotten ; 
indeed, it is only remembered because of her amours 
with the Cardinal of Arragon, and because of a witty 
reply made by her to an insult and recorded by 
Domenichi in his Facezie, a reply which bears witness 
to her readiness of tongue if not to the perfection 
of her manners. The Papal government, it appears, 
from motives of economy and for the edification of 
timid souls, caused the tributes it exacted from women 
of ill-fame to be devoted to the paving of a certain 
street. As Giulia Campana was walking down that 
street one day she met a gentlewoman and chanced 
to knock up against her, whereupon the gentlewoman 
grew angry and began to abuse Giulia. Then said 
the latter, " I ask your pardon. Madonna, for I know 

155 



156 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

well that you have more right in this street than L" 
The answer was evidently approved of at that time 
and gained for Giulia the reputation of having a witty 
tongue, since we find it repeated in one of those books 
read by the best society for the brightening of its 
intelligence ! 

It was probably in order to seek a fortune equal 
to her avarice that Giulia Campana exchanged the 
banks of the Po for the Seven Hills. Nor was she 
disappointed ; indeed, as the poem relating her adven- 
tures declares, Fortune smiled very kindly upon 
her ; for, as she was walking one day by the side of 
the Tiber, she chanced to meet an eminent ecclesiastic 
whose consecrated locks were covered by the purple 
hat and whose covetous eyes were instantly arrested 
by her charms. The adventurous shepherd who dis- 
covered this pretty lamb was Luigi of Arragon, son 
of Errico, Marquis of Gerace, a natural son of Ferdi- 
nand L, of Arragon, King of Naples, and of Diana 
Guardato. Luigi, whose mother was Polissena, 
daughter of the Marquis of Cotrone, was born in 
Naples in 1475, ^'^^ became Marquis of Gerace on 
the death of his father in 1478. In 1492 he married 
Battistina Cibo, and then, being left a widower whilst 
still very young, he entered the Sacred College of 
Alexander VI., in 1493. This fact, however, was not 
officially promulgated until 1497, perhaps because 
of the differences which had arisen between Alexander 
and the House of Arragon, and the disturbances occa- 
sioned in the kingdom by the expedition of Charles 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 157 

VIII. Luigi died in 15 19, at the age of forty, and 
was buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra 
Minerva, where his tomb may still be seen, with the 
inscription placed t;here by his executor, Cardinal 
Franciotto Orsini. 

The date of Luigi of Arragon's first arrival in 
Rome is uncertain, as also that of his meeting with 
Giulia Campana. But as Tullia was already well 
known in 1527, at the time of the sack of Rome, 
she could scarcely have been less than twenty years 
old, whence it may be inferred that it was some- 
where about 1505 that the amorous prelate met 
with the lady who was destined to make the name 
of Arragon famous in the annals of the courtesan 
world. 

Of Tullia's youth little is known. An unreliable 
manuscript biography by Zilioli says that " she spent 
her earliest years amongst the delights and comforts 
of a fine fortune which had been bequeathed her 
by her affectionate father." Between 1515 and 151 8, 
before his death, Giulia, as we have seen, lived in 
Campo Marzo, in a house belonging to the convent 
of Sant' Agostino, and certainly neither mother nor 
daughter were in money difficulties then. Harder 
times followed the death of their generous protector, 
and it was probably then that the unnatural mother 
bethought herself of turning to good account the 
beauty with which nature had largely endowed the 
daughter. According to Muzio, they lived for some 
time in Siena, perhaps during the years 15 17 and 15 18, 



158 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

when the Cardinal of Arragon undertook his long 
journey through Germany, Switzerland, Flanders, 
Picardy, and other French provinces, a manuscript 
account of which, written by Don Antonio de Beatis, 
is preserved in the National Library at Naples. At 
Siena TuUia was probably able to pay more attention 
to her studies, in which, if Zilioli is to be believed, 
" she made such progress that while she was still a 
child she astonished learned men by saying and writing 
both in Latin and Italian things worthy of the best 
scholars." 

From the Ragionamento of Aretino we gather that 
Giulia left Rome after 1 5 1 9, and settled first in Siena 
with her daughter. She appears to have still been 
possessed of some of the property left her by the 
Cardinal, together with savings amassed during past 
times of prosperity ; but she soon perceived that it 
was itime to cede the ground to her daughter, and 
desired that she must make her first appearance upon 
the greatest stage in the world. 

So we find them both in Rome again, where the royal 
name she bore and her many accomplishments soon 
brought her into notice. Giulia knew her public 
and all the tricks of the trade, and she knew that 
as the supposed daughter of a Cardinal Tullia would 
have all the attractions of forbidden fruit. The girl 
was no vulgar courtesan ; she was noble, because, 
albeit not pure, the blood of Arragon ran in her veins ; 
in refinement, education, and intelligence she was the 
equal of those gentlemen who had seen her as a 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 159 

child in the house of her protector, who, on his side, 
as was the custom of the time, saw no reason for 
making a mystery of his amours and their charming 
offspring. 

TuUia found it easy, therefore, to choose her adorers 
from amongst the persons of exalted position, the 
scholars and scientists who gathered round her, at- 
tracted by her charm both of mind and body, and 
doubtless maternal counsels were not lacking as to 
the most advantageous manner of conducting herself 
in the difficulties of a first appearance. 

Tullia was one who ever strove towards better 
things ; at least she always tried to persuade herself, 
and to make others believe, that she possessed a soul 
above her station, and that hard fate and dire necessity 
alone had forced her into such a position. She gave 
herself the airs of a gentlewoman and poetess con- 
strained by circumstances to pursue an uncongenial 
occupation. Like the famous Florentine Secretary 
who put off his everyday garments when he discoursed 
familiarly with the great men of the past, Tullia 
dropped her embroidered veil when she took up her 
lute, and this (if we are to believe Giraldi's indict- 
ment) may explain the double reputation which she 
bore, as she could reveal herself either as the Muse 
or the beauty, according to the circumstances of the 
moment. Perhaps she was a woman clever enough 
to appear a sphinx to all, as indeed she seems to 
any one who seeks now to reconstruct her character 
from the sparse record and documents to be found 



i6o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

concerning her. It is quite possible, for the cunning 
of women more than equals the credulity of scholars ! 

Tullia's house was the meeting-place for the choicest 
spirits to be found amongst gentlemen, scholars, and 
litterati of all persuasions. Here learned and witty 
discussions took place upon the most exalted themes, 
and the bright sayings of this select company were 
often worthy of record. One scene has been described 
by Domenichi as follows : 

" A company of gentlemen and virtuosi were de- 
claring one day in the house of Tullia of Arragon 
that Petrarch, being a clever man, had recognised 
the value of the subjects treated by certain ancient 
Provencal and Tuscan rhymers and had made use 
of them himself. In order not to bring the discussion 
to an end too soon, several persons feigned to hold 
a contrary opinion, and as they were thus disputing 
there arrived Umore of Bologna, who took ofF his 
cap and sat him down amongst them. Having heard 
the subject of their conversation he was asked for 
his opinion, whereupon he answered thus : ' It appears 
unto me, sirs, that Petrarch being a man of ingenious 
and ready intelligence, used the verses of the ancient 
poets as the Spaniards use the caps which they steal 
during the night; for in order that they may not 
be recognised and the thieves punished, they do orna- 
ment them with some new and elegant decoration 
and then wear them openly.' Now there chanced 
to be a Spanish gentleman present, and hearing his 
nation thus attacked he turned to Umore and said, 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON i6i 

' What is that you say of the Spaniards, sir ? ' ' Are 
you, then, a Spaniard ? ' answered Umore in feigned 
astonishment, and instantly calling a servant he had 
his cap brought him and put it on again. All the 
company laughed at this action of Umore's, who, 
instead of showing regret at having offended the 
gentleman, as another might have done, doubled the 
offence with an excellent grace." 

This anecdote, the Spaniard's forbearance and the 
standing of the persons assembled, shows in what 
respect the hostess was held, and the little picture 
thus drawn with few strokes by Domenichi recalls 
that miniature by Clovio in the Vatican, representing 
a scene from the Book of the Courtier {Cortegiano') of 
Messer Baldassarre da Castiglione and showing ladies 
and gentlemen seated around the walls of a room, 
opposite a richly decorated fireplace whereon lighted 
torches were placed. It is very probable, however, 
that the fair hostess herself, or at most her mother, 
were the only representatives of their sex at these 
receptions, for TuUia preferred to be the sole recipient 
of homage and praise, and certainly brooked no rivals 
in her kingdom. 

Another curious document relating to Tullia's 
life in Rome is furnished by a letter written on 
February 14, 153 1, by Francesco Vettori to Filippo 
Strozzi, who had been called to Rome by order of 
Clement VII to get back some jewels and to revise 
his accounts. But the jewels and the accounts were 
mere excuses, for the Pontiff was planning to make 

II 



1 62 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Duke Alessandro de' Medici the absolute ruler and 
prince of Florence, and he wanted Filippo Strozzi 
to help him in devising a means of introducing a 
form of government, or rather a condition of affairs, 
into Florence, wherein the magistrates of the city 
would govern nominally but the Duke have actual 
control of everything. In order to allay the sus- 
picions aroused by his past conduct, Strozzi hastened 
to show himself zealous in furthering the Pope's 
designs, and by way of preparing the ground for his 
return to Florence and the carrying out of the 
decisions arrived at in the secret consultation with 
the Pope, he wrote to Vettori begging for his help and 
advice. Vettori's answer contained an amplification 
of the plans he had already drawn up at the Pope's 
request for the better government and organisation 
of the city, and concluded with these words : 

*' You write to me with Tullia beside you, but 
I would not have you also read my reply with her 
by your side ; you are in love with her and hold 
her to be a woman of spirit, but I do not desire 
that she should injure me with any of those whom 
I have named in my letter. I do not presume to 
admonish Filippo Strozzi, although, if admonitions 
corrected faults, ye would take no offence thereat ; 
but I have heard of I know not what challenges being 
sent out, which have troubled me, thinking how 
that a man such as you are, forty-three years old, 
was desirous of fighting for a woman's sake. And 
although I do think ye would be as successful with 




rmBKWEDETTO ,h. MAJAIN^- 



Photo] 



FILIi'I'O STROZZI. 



lAliuaii. 
\To face page 1O2. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 163 

arms as ye are with letters, and all other things to 
which ye give your mind, I would not that ye should 
at this present time expose yourself to the danger 
of fighting for so tri,fling a cause ; moreover, I would 
remind you that of men such as yourself but few 
are born in each century, and I do not say this 
out of flattery. Settle your affairs and then return 
unto us here." 

This Filippo Strozzi who wrote about the most 
secret political business with TuUia by his side, and 
who esteemed her intelligence so highly that he would 
even read her Vettori's letter, who loved her to 
the extent of sending out challenges in defence of 
her honour : this gentleman of forty-three who went 
straight from a secret council with the Pope, the 
Cardinals Salviati and Ridolfi, Jacopo Salviati and 
Ruberto Pucci to the salon of the courtesan, is the 
genuine type of the Florentine gentleman of the 
time described by Benvenuto Cellini in his Life. 
Amongst all the young men of his day and city, 
he was the most elegant in dress and the foremost 
in the pursuit of pleasure, and his wife, Clarice de' 
Medici, suffered numerous rivals in his affections. 
A biographer of his describes him as being more 
addicted to amusements than was advisable, and not 
only for his own pleasure, but in obedience to the 
wishes of his superiors and friends. He was present 
at every public or private spectacle where women 
were invited, for he was their ardent admirer and 
easily fell in love, though chiefly with those who 



i64 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

were distinguished for their grace and their manners 
rather than for their beauty. He was passionately 
fond of music and a good singer, and thought it in 
no wise beneath his dignity to sally forth with his 
brother Lorenzo and other companions singing psalms 
and lamentations in public during Holy Week, or 
to go masked from house to house in Carnival time 
singing merry songs. Various translations and 
madrigals of his which have been set to music 
prove, too, that he could write creditably both in 
prose and verse. 

The man's character is apparent from this descrip- 
tion of him. He was a great admirer and follower 
of women, though never falling very deeply in love ; 
a great musical amateur^ a frequenter of masked balls 
and other amusements, and very fond of literature 
and poetry. TuUia could not fail to attract him, 
and it was only natural that a similarity of tastes 
should awaken in them such sympathy that they 
were nearly always together, and that he who was 
afterwards vanquished at Montemurlo should be 
ready to fight even for such a forlorn hope as 
Tullia's good name. 

It is a fact, however, that the name of Strozzi 
does not appear as one of Tullia's six champions 
in a challenge which is preserved with many other 
documents in the Rinucciniana and which belongs 
to that year, although Ferrai placed it in 1539. 
This challenge has never been published, and is 
worthy of perusal, both as being an example of that 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 165 

type of document and a proof of the manner in 
which the lady knew how to sharpen both the wits 
of scholars and the swords of the duellists. The com- 
position runs as follpws : 

"The undersigned gentlemen do hold that virtue 
alone doth bestow immortality upon every generous 
soul, through everlasting fame saving it from oblivion, 
which the fleeting and uncertain memory of man 
is not able to do ; and they hold that this should 
be deservedly loved, reverenced and exalted to the 
utmost of human power, and all the more so when 
it is found in a person endowed with every grace 
and every gift of fortune or nature. Wherefore, 
being true upholders and lovers of this virtue, and 
for the sake of truth, which every noble heart 
should ever strive to protect, bringing it forth to 
the light and causing it to shine with the full 
splendour of the sun wheresoever it is found to 
be hidden or obscured, and not moved by any other 
passion or motive, the undersigned do offer them- 
selves, without prejudice to the honoured laws of 
military discipline, unto all the world for the purpose 
of valiantly maintaining upon a certain day that 
their lady and mistress, the illustrious lady Tullia 
of Arragon, is by reason of her infinite virtues the 
most meritorious of all women of the past, present, 
or future age. And in order that any person who 
is jealous of her immortal glory, and speaketh or 
thinketh of her in manner different from what is 
due, may speedily declare himself, the undersigned 



i66 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

do declare themselves ready to uphold her cause 
according to the rules of the tournaments of the 
ancient and glorious knights. And thus, even if they 
were not already sufficiently evident and clear, 
the inestimable merits of the aforesaid lady will be 
made known as they deserve, and in the same way 
the courage and valour of her servants will become 
more famous and indisputable. Wherefore, all persons 
will be constrained to confess that, as there is no 
knight superior in power to the undersigned, so 
likewise no lady like or equal unto the aforesaid lady 
doth exist, or hath ever existed, or ever can exist 
in the future. 

" I, Paulo Emilio Orsini, do bind myself to uphold 
what is contained in this writing. 

"I, Accursio Mattei, do bind myself to uphold what 
is contained in this writing. 

" I, Brunoro Neccia, do bind myself to uphold what 
is contained in this writing. 

"I, Alberto Rippe, do bind myself to uphold what 
is written above. 

" I, Marco of Urbino, do bind myself to uphold 
what is contained in this writing. 

" I, Bernado Rinuccini, do hold myself bound by 
what is written here above." 

Filippo Strozzi was not, therefore, one of the 
six who thus proclaimed themselves champions of 
Tullia's honour, declaring her more excellent than 
any other woman of the past, present, or future. 
Perhaps such ostentatious partisanship went against 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 167 

his Florentine good taste, or the favours shown 
him by the indulgent lady had taught him sufficient 
concerning the catalogue of her many virtues! 

It is probable that if Vettori had known her more 
intimately he would have spared Filippo the sermon 
he wrote him. This was not without its good effect, 
however, as we have seen, and FiHppo returned to 
Florence towards the April of 153 1, in all probability 
grateful to his friend for having persuaded him against 
taking up arms in defence of TuUia of Arragon. 
He forget her in other and nobler affections, and 
to her he was but one name in a long list of admirers ; 
nor is it likely that her tears flowed when, seven 
years later, he met his tragic fate and killed himself 
in prison. 

Documentary evidence is so scarce that it would 
be impossible to follow Tullia in her various 
wanderings. In his poem Argia^ wherein he deplores 
the death of Penelope, TuUia's sister, and which 
is but part of a large work, the poet Muzio tells 
us that Giulia Campana's second daughter was born 
in Adria about 1535 and died in Rome when thirteen 
years old. In 1535, Tullia and her mother were 
in Venice, and again in 1537, when Speroni introduces 
her into his Dialogo as engaged in a love-affair with 
Bernardo Tasso under the eyes of two other aspirants, 
Niccolo Grazia and Francesco Maria Molza. Tasso 
afterwards freed himself from TuUia's bonds and 
pretended that he was obliged to quit Venice in 
order to return to his master in Salerno. Instead, 



i68 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

however, he departed on a delicate errand entrusted 
to him by the Florentine exiles. He went to Spain 
to negotiate with the ministers of the Emperor Charles 
v., for the liberation of his predecessor in Tullia's 
affections, namely, Filippo Strozzi, who was a prisoner 
in that same Florentine fortress which had in part 
been built with the money he himself had lent, the 
erection of which had been advised by Francesco 
Vettori in the letter already alluded to. Truly, fate 
plays cruel tricks ! Tullia, meanwhile, fearless and 
unconscious, replaced old loves with new ones ; cold, 
impassive, and statuesque, she went upon her way, 
and neither in her eyes nor in her verses do we find 
the trace of a single tear. 

As we have seen, she was in Rome in the year 
1531 ; early in 1535 she was in Adria, where her 
sister Penelope was born ; in 1537 she went to 
Ferrara and thence to Venice, if Speroni is to be 
believed. After a stay in Siena, she went to Florence 
in the beginning of 1546, remaining there some two 
and a half years, and after various other wanderings 
she died in Rome in» March, 1556. The poet Muzio, 
in his eclogue Argia^ describes the adventures of 
Penelope, who, with her mother, always followed 
the fortunes of Tullia, and gives us in verse the 
itinerary of these three wandering women. And since 
it has been proved that his poetical information agrees 
with that of more matter-of-fact documents, we may 
go back a few years and take up the thread of the 
story again at Ferrara. 




Photo] 



VITTORIA COI.ONNA, BY MUZIAXO. 



[Alinari. 
[ To face f>age 169. 



Ill 



SOME time before June, 1537, Tullia arrived in 
Ferrara, to which town, in the April of this 
same year, had come Vittoria Colonna, in all proba- 
bility for the purpose of restoring peace to the soul 
of Renata d'Este and reconciling her with the Duke. 
During this Lent the Siennese preacher, Bernardino 
Ochino, had been profoundly moving all Ferrara with 
his inspired words, spoken from the pulpit with 
" marvellous fervour " and a *' perfect voice," and 
the Marchioness of Pescara, who was a staunch sup- 
porter of the Capucin friar, had found another reason 
for her journey to Ferrara in helping him to establish 
a house for his Order in that place. Tullia, who vied 
with the Duchess for the admiration of the Ferrarese, 
strewed cinders on her head, as was the duty of 
every honest sinner, and did not fail to show herself 
to the eyes of the citizens dressed in penitent's garb 
and mingling with the throng who hung on the 
preacher's words and interrupted his discourse with 
loud applause. 

To this preacher, Bernardo Ochino, Tullia thought 
fit to address a sonnet, reproaching him for trying 

to deprive people of their " free will " and forbidding 

169 



170 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

them to indulge in personal adornments, dancing, and 
playing, which amusements, she declared, were gifts 
from God to man in the earliest ages. The courtesan, 
who did not hesitate to accuse the pious Lenten 
preacher of arrogance, must have set great store by 
this exercise of " free will " for the purpose of winning 
the admiration of the subjects of Ercole II and his 
Duchess, highly praised by the divine muse of Ariosto ; 
for it was precisely by these very arts that she won 
the favour of all who came into contact with her. 

A letter written on June 13, 1537, from Ferrara 
to Isabella d'Este throws a curious light on Tullia's 
stay in Ferrara and an adventure which befell her 
there. " There is come to this city," says the writer, 
" a fair courtesan from Rome named Signora Tuliia, 
who intends to stay here some months, from what 
I hear. She is very charming, discreet and clever, 
and gifted with the most perfect manners ; she can 
sing anything at sight, and is without a rival in con- 
versation ; and so agreeably does she bear herself that 
there is neither man nor woman who can equal her, 
although the most illustrous lady, the Marchioness 
of Pescara, is most excellent, and she is here, as your 
Excellency knows. This Tuliia shows a knowledge 
of everything, and only speaks with you of what is 
interesting to you. Her house is always full of 
virtuosi^ and it is at all times possible to see her ; she 
is rich in money, jewels, chains, rings, and other 
valuable things ; in short, she is well provided with 
everything." 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 171 

It is plain that the " fair courtesan " was showing 
herself under her most discreet and virtuous aspect, 
making good use of her power of delighting and 
bewitching every one who spoke to her. The free 
display of v/ealth obtained none knew how, the living 
without any mystery under the eyes, as it were, of 
the whole city, the being always surrounded by 
virtuosi to whom she could show off her talents, and 
the receiving freely whoever desired to make her 
acquaintance, were but so many clever ruses to prove 
that she was a woman of irreproachable character. 

It was of the greatest importance to Tullia to be 
thought well of, and to build up for herself a solid 
reputation against which all the attacks of calumny 
and scandal would be in vain. Rome was a long 
way off, and even if unfavourable rumours were to 
float as far as Ferrara, they would be contradicted 
by facts and opinions which could only redound to 
her credit. The wealth she displayed would prove 
that she was independent and in no need of interested 
homage. She posed as a literary woman with illus- 
trious antecedents ; she did not scorn the outward 
forms of religion, and wanted to be in a position, 
like Vittoria Colonna, to offer advice to Ochino. 
For one who had been exposed to the biting witticisms 
of Pasquino and the fiery attacks of Roman satire, 
it must have been a great and indescribable satisfaction 
to feel herself regarded as the equal or even the 
superior of the Marchioness of Pescara, admired and 
courted of all, the object of the affections of poets 



172 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and gentlemen, with one or another ever prostrate 
at her feet ! 

It is probable that at this glorious period of her 
career TuUia hoped to raise herself above her actual 
position and prepare for herself a more exalted future ; 
perhaps she thought that the adulatory verses and the 
general wave of poetical sentiment with which her 
admirers now almost overwhelmed her would serve 
to wash out the sordid prose of her earlier years. She 
delighted in practising a gentle modesty, in shy 
refusals, and in declaring herself pure and incorruptible 
to those who had easy means of learning the truth 
about her previous life. To prefer platonic friend- 
ships to the lovers sighing at her feet, to inspire songs 
and poems, to bring low the proudest heads and turn 
a deaf ear to the most ardent declarations, to play 
with love as a cat plays with a mouse when it knows 
it is certain of its prey, must have afforded Tullia 
a keen joy such as only goddesses can know. Who 
can read the heart of a woman when she is eaten up 
with pride and vanity ? Who can divine the au- 
dacious plans of which the feminine mind is capable 
when it knows itself mistress of all the arts of grace 
and beauty ? It would almost seem as though, now 
in the prime of life, she was trying the power of her 
charms to its full extent, seeing to what lengths she 
could drive those who were caught in her toils and 
blinded by her undeniable attractions. 

In the above-mentioned letter to Isabella d'Este, 
Marchioness of Mantua, the writer describes an un- 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 173 

fortunate adventure which befell a youth belonging 
to one of the best families of Ferrara (he does not 
give the name, '* for the honour of his family "), who 
fell desperately in love with Tullia and attempted to 
bribe her with offers of " money and gold ornaments 
and pearls of great value." But the lady was obdurate, 
possibly that she might give the lie to the calumnies 
concerning her which Giovanni Battista Giraldi was 
just then disseminating verbally throughout Ferrara. 
But the youth's passion only increased with opposition 
and he determined to marry her as soon as she liked. 
The offer of marriage was no more successful than 
the gifts, however, and the disdainful lady told him 
that she had not come to Ferrara to settle, but was 
returning to Rome at the end of the season. She was 
enchanted to have an opportunity of showing the 
people and even the Court, that she had not been 
reduced to coming to Ferrara to take the first husband 
she could pick up, but that, on the contrary, she had 
only to raise her little finger and from all parts of 
Italy would come rushing adorers, old and young, 
gentlemen, poets, and knights, all famed for birth or 
strength or valour ; she wanted to make it plain that 
she scorned to change her laurel wreath for the 
house-wife's cap ; she had beauty and freedom, and 
had no intention as yet of imprisoning her still bloom- 
ing youth within the sacred bonds of matrimony. 

Although the young man still pursued her with 
vows and entreaties, she did not close her door to 
him ; a disconsolate suitor, a husband refused, was too 



174 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

valuable a witness to her integrity to be summarily 
dismissed ! He was planning to trap her, but though 
she suspected his intentions she took no means to foil 
his plans, trusting to come out of the adventure with 
as much honour to herself as there would be scandal 
for the opposite party. 

So she waited. At last the amorous youth pre- 
tended that his sister and another kinswoman, both 
married, and to nobles who were related to each 
other, had heard of the delights of her society, and in 
order to make her acquaintance would do her the 
favour of coming to supper with her. TuUia declared 
herself ready to receive the ladies, so the youth pro- 
vided all that was needful for a jfine supper and sent 
everything to Tullia's house, together with a good 
cook to prepare the entertainment. The two ladies, 
however, failed to appear at the appointed time. 
Instead, late in the evening, the youth presented 
himself at the house, accompanied by a friend, and 
with pretended indignation and despair informed 
TuUia that the ladies' husbands had refused to allow 
them to come. Whether TuUia believed him or not, 
they sat down to the long-delayed supper, and after- 
wards spent the time in pleasant conversation, until, 
at two in the morning, the lady bade the two youths 
depart to their own lodgings. Then the lover with 
a dramatic gesture drew forth a string of pearls worth 
a hundred scudi or more, and placing it in Tullia's 
hand begged her to grant him hospitality for that 
night, as he was afraid of being attacked and perhaps 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 175 

killed by his enemies if he walked through the streets 
at that late hour. Moreover, he declared he was 
ready to marry her on the spot if she would but 
consent, and drawing out of the breast of his tunic 
two valuable rings, he bade her call in any one she 
liked as witness and he would espouse her instantly. 
At a word from the lover his companion disappeared, 
and then, with no third person present, the scene 
began to grow dangerous. But Tullia rose with all 
the dignity of an outraged queen, and taking up the 
jewels, she gave them back to the youth (who knows 
how unwillingly !) repeating in no unmistakeable terms 
her refusal either to accept his gifts or become his 
wife. The desperate youth stood there as though 
turned to stone; he remembered the soft glances, 
the whispers, the sighs of other days, and scarcely 
believed the cruel words he had just heard. Then, 
suddenly coming to himself, he broke out in curses 
against his evil fate, and violently tearing open his 
tunic, he seized the dagger he wore at his side and 
plunged it into his own breast. 

The comedy was now changed into a drama. 
Fortunately, however, the deity who watches over fools 
and the imprudent took care that the dagger should 
glance sideways and cause a wound that was com- 
paratively slight. But it was high time to call for 
assistance, in order that this new Lucrece might not 
be threatened like the Roman wife. The women 
of the house rushed in, together with a man who 
chanced to be there, it was said, but who had in all 



176 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

probability been retained in case of need. They lifted 
up the wounded youth and wanted to carry him off 
to the nearest physician, but he resisted, and cried 
out that he would be married at all costs. So then 
Tullia said to him in the presence of all there : 

" Assuredly ye are a most discourteous gentleman ! 
Be now warned, lest your obstinacy and frivolity bring 
you to further hurt and shame. If ye do not depart 
and if ye persist in staying in my house against my 
wish, I swear by my faith that to-morrow morning 
as soon as it is light I will go to his Excellency the 
Duke and complain of your presumptuous insolence, 
and I do not think that his Lordship will allow me 
to be thus troubled by a person to whom I have never 
given offence." 

The courtesan exhibited all the pride and dignity 
of the royal house to which she claimed to belong ; 
but neither advice nor threats had the slightest effect 
on the obstinate youth. So they locked him in the 
room where this exciting drama had taken place, and 
the outraged lady sent immediately for a friend, 
a certain " valiant soldier," who quickly appeared with 
two companions (all three engaged beforehand, also !), 
and they sat with her until daylight. 

As soon as it was day the room was opened by the 
soldier's advice and the youth was found stretched on 
the bed, half dead from loss of blood. He was 
removed to his own house and put to bed there, and 
only narrowly escaped paying for his folly with his life. 
Through this adventure he lost all favour in his lady's 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 177 

eyes, but Tullia's virtue was triumphantly proved to 
be an impregnable fortress, the spirited defence of 
which had earned for her the sympathy of the most 
strict and select persons in the city. The Muse was 
not to be tempted by gold and pearls and offers of 
marriage; the courtesan could be offended in her 
womanly dignity as well as any other of her sex, and 
the rumours current concerning her avarice and her 
vice were only so many calumnies set on foot by 
malicious enemies or other rejected suitors. 

So Tullia triumphed, and henceforth the united 
verdict of all Ferrara proclaimed her superior even 
to Vittoria Colonna herself! Her honour was vindi- 
cated, and with a high head and royal mien, Tullia 
of Arragon, poet and courtesan, held court in Ferrara 
in peace. 



12 



IV 



T^ULLIA OF ARRAGON had now succeeded in 
^ winning for herself a firm and respectable posi- 
tion in Ferrara, and in climbing on to a pedestal 
worthy of her glory. The only thing she now lacked 
was a trumpeter who would sound her praises in 
resonant notes, a poet who would immortalise her 
charms in sugared and flowery verse. This poet was 
presently found in Girolamo Muzio, and it is from his 
rhymed descriptions of her adventures, wherein he 
alludes to her under the names of Tyrrhenia or Thalia^ 
that we obtain the most precise information concerning 
her life in Ferrara. 

We must first, however, give some account of this 
Muzio, who played such an important part in Tullia's 
existence and whose name is linked with hers both in 
poetical and in actual adventures. 

Girolamo Muzio, who afterwards called himself 

Justinopolitano, after the Latin name of his father's 

birthplace, Capodistria, was born on March 12, 1496, 

in Padua, where his father held an appointment as 

master in a public school. The real name of the 

family was Nuzio, but he had changed it to Muzio 

on pretence of being descended from the ancient Muzi, 

178 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 179 

famous both in arms and letters, who with other 
Roman families had revived learning in that city in 
the time of the Emperor Justino. Of his early life 
little is known, save that it was passed at Capodistria, 
whither his father had returned in the exercise of his 
profession ; but at seventeen years old Muzio left his 
home and commenced a roving life as scribe and poet 
in the service of bishops or princes, poets, ambas- 
sadors, or men of the sword. After his father's death 
he returned to Capodistria, where he spent some 
considerable time, occupying himself, together with 
other youths, such as the Vergerio, Vida, and Grisoni, 
in riding and other knightly exercises and in literary 
labours. After this, however, he knew no rest, and 
his life was a wandering one. He became secretary 
to the bishop Pietro Bonomo from Trieste, beloved of 
the Emperors Frederick III. and Maximilian I., and 
in his train Muzio visited Styria, Carinthia, Austria, 
Bohemia, and the Tyrol, travelling also in Germany ; 
and when Bonomo returned home Muzio betook him- 
self to Venice, where he resumed his studies, first 
under RafFaelo Regio and then under Giovan Battista 
Egnazio. In spite of his work in the wealthy library 
and in the company of his learned master, it was 
impossible for him to escape the attractions of love, 
to which amusement he soon devoted himself with 
youthful ardour. A Venetian lady was the object of 
his first passion, and his feelings found expression in 
verse. During the period between Christmas and 
Carnival the open squares in front of the Venetian 



i8o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

churches were the scenes of continual merrymakings, 
and after his day's work amongst books and manu- 
scripts, Muzio used to issue forth at night with the 
masked singers and musicians who serenaded the ladies 
waiting at their windows, and went to see his beloved. 
But death put an end to this idyll, and the poet's 
grief was increased by the fact that all his compositions 
sacred to the lady were stolen from him, whereby he 
seemed to lose her a second time. 

He soon recovered from the blow, however, for we 
next find him in Piedmont, in the service of Giovanni 
Bartolommeo Tizzoni, Count of Desana, celebrating the 
Carnival of 1525 at the Castle of Valperga with dances, 
feastings, and new love affairs. A letter written to the 
Countess Margherita Tizzoni, the wife of his patron, 
gives us a lively picture of the Piedmontese manners 
and customs of the sixteenth century. On Muzio's 
arrival at Valperga he found there a number of gentle- 
men who, hearing that he came from Venice, where 
it was supposed that men were not accustomed to have 
any intercourse with women, endeavoured to turn him 
into ridicule. But Muzio was too knowing to fall 
into the trap. Let him tell the story in his own 
words : — 

" On the morning of the day when the festival was 
to begin several persons asked me whether I were 
going to attend the entertainment. I replied, ' How ! 
I intend to be the foremost there ! ' When I arrived 
I sat me down upon a bench not far from Monsignor 
di Masino (the lord of Valperga), who was sitting in 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON i8i 

the midst of the women, and who, placing a young 
woman in my arms, said to me, ' Take thou hold 
of this one.' Immediately throwing one arm round 
her neck and with the other hand taking one of hers, 
I began to talk with her. The eyes of all were upon 
me, and I, feigning not to be aware of it, continued 
ray diversion. Then Monsignor di Masino, who had 
another damsel upon his knee, called me by name and 
kissed his companion, and I did likewise, kissing mine. 
But now came my lady's father and brothers and asked 
me what I was doing, and I made answer that they 
were truly fortunate in possessing so wise and graceful 
a daughter and sister. Thus did I spend that evening 
with more astonishment to others than ridicule unto 
myself. Upon the following night there was performed 
that dance which is called the brando^ wherein all the 
men dance with all the women in turn, and leaving 
hold of their own partner they do kiss the one whom 
they next take hold of, and thus they go on until they 
find their partner again, and when they take her again 
they kiss her also. Now when I took my partner 
again and made as though to kiss her, she thrust her 
chin down into her bosom and feigned to be shy ; but 
as I well understood that it was all done in order to 
make trial of me, I placed one hand at the back of 
her head and the other beneath her chin, and so by 
force I kissed her." 

In this way the Piedmontese ladies were convinced 
that Muzio was no raw boy, and henceforth they took 
more delight in his society than in that of the other 



i82 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

gentlemen. Muzio was asked if the Piedmontese 
would be allowed to kiss the women of his country as 
he had been allowed to kiss theirs, and he replied that 
if the Piedmontese were to go to his country they 
would have to adapt themselves to the customs there 
as he had adapted himself to the manners here. And 
on being further asked which customs pleased him 
most, he answered that he preferred the Piedmontese, 
but in the houses of other people ! 

In spite of all these attractions, Muzio did not 
remain many years in Piedmont with Count Tizzoni, 
who sent him on an embassy to the Duke of Urbino 
and afterwards to General Lautrec. After leaving 
Tizzoni he went to France with Count Claude 
Rangone, and saw the arrival of Eleanor, sister of 
Charles V. and bride of Francis L, the restitution of the 
king's children, and the consignment of thirty loads of 
gold which were sent into Spain. At the courts both 
of Paris and Amboise, Muzio was treated with much 
honour by the king, and no less so by the various 
literary men gathered there, amongst whom one of the 
foremost was the Florentine poet, Luigi Alamanni. 
After his return to Italy Muzio lived quietly for some 
time at Concordia in the pay of Count Galeotto Pico 
della Mirandola, who gave him a hundred scudi a year. 
In June, 1533, his patron sent him to Rome to take up, 
before Pope Clement VII., the defence of Mirandola's 
property, the possession of which was disputed by a 
relative of the Count. In Rome, however, he made 
but a short stay, for he was disappointed at not finding 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 183 

any of his old Istrian friends there, and moreover he 
considered that Count della Mirandola failed to accord 
him the esteem and position due to him. So he left 
his service, and soon afterwards had the good fortune 
to be called to the Court of Ferrara into the service 
of Duke Ercole II. Here in Ferrara, a few years 
later, Muzio met Tullia of Arragon. 

Sought after at Court, highly esteemed by gentlemen 
and scholars of all descriptions, Muzio was the very 
type of the poet Tullia was in search of, and the clever 
woman immediately perceived that, by keeping a wary 
check upon him and restraining his ardour when it 
threatened to grow inconvenient, she might safely 
bestow her favours on him and turn his talents and 
his popularity to good account for herself. 

The fiery and susceptible Muzio very soon fell 
desperately in love with her ; he was enthralled by her 
charms and dazzled by the beauty of her bright eyes, 
which he described as — 

"... beauteous eyes, 
Gracious eyes, amorous eyes and dear, 
More lovely than the stars or than the sun 
And unto me . . . 
Dearer than life itself or mine own soul." 

Tullia became his muse, and since he could not bring 
it about that her soul should be *' indissolubly united " 
with his, he desired that at least their two names should 
be " read together eternally," and that they should 
thus " live together bright and immortal." The ardent 
lover endeavoured to prove that his affection could 



1 84 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

never be diminished either by distance or any of the 
vicissitudes or changes to which woman is subject, 
and under the name of Tyrrhenia he idolises her even 
from the very first of the Amorous Eclogues in 
which Mopso laments the cruelty of the nymph he 
adores. The reality of passion is scarcely hidden in 
these Arcadian pastorals ; from behind the rustic mask 
of Mopso are heard the burning words of the cavalier 
and courtier of Ercole IL, Duke of Ferrara, who was 
caught in the toils of this clever woman somewhere 
about 1537. And he confesses it, too, writing thus 
of himself : 

" The inward splendour and the brilliant face 
Of fair Tyrrhenia so oppress his breast, 
Such great joy hath he of her that his tongue 
Hath neither will nor power to speak of aught 
Save her alone." 

One hears at once that he has been taken captive. 
At forty years old love is no longer a mere flame ; 
it is a mighty fire, and the greater it is the more 
suddenly does it break out. Muzio makes Mopso 
tell the story of this love, and the pastoral verses 
vibrate with passionate memories, showing a truth of 
expression and an artistic power which a poet of this 
standing would hardly have been expected to possess. 

It is spring-time, that unreliable season which 
quickens the blood even of forty-year-old poets — 

"It was the season when the meadows green 
Are full of blossom, when the roses bloom. 
And birds are singing midst the flowers new." 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 185 

The picture evoked by these words is charming ; it 
breathes a fragrance suggesting moments of sweet 
abandon, when the heart softens at the sight of such 
beauty. The smiling picture of the season of roses, 
sketched with but few strokes, contrasts vividly with 
the verses which follow wherein sudden, overwhelming, 
fatal love is described with a vigour of expression 
singular in a writer of that century : 

"When first I saw thee, at that earliest glimpse 
My heart was rapt, and through my being sped, 
Moved by the power of thy lovely eyes, 
Ice-cold fear mingled with hot desire." 

But Tyrrhenia seemed inaccessible then — 



" More scorning love and fleeing faster still 
Than timid doe before the hunter flees." 



She has a heart of ice and is deaf to all Mopso's prayers 
and vows ; in her beauty and cruelty are combined, 
and not all the praises addressed to her shapely limbs 
or the burning words of her adorer can move her from 
her proud reserve. Apparently the poet asks too 
much, at least for a beginning, and Tullia does not 
seem to have made any immediate response to the 
amorous invitation at the end of the poem, where 
Mopso's verses are inflamed by the reality of the desire 
consuming the courtier. In our eyes the Nymph is 
transformed into the woman who understands how to 
awaken the most ardent longings and to extinguish 



i86 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

them or hold them in check until a more convenient 
time or place. 

It is easy to see that TuUia must have been a woman 
of entrancing beauty ; that Bonvicino's portrait is a 
faithful one, and that the verses she inspired were not 
mere hollow-sounding words of cold adulation, not 
only a tribute to the poetess, the writer, the Muse, 
but the expression of genuine feelings excited by the 
light of those beautiful eyes and the grace of those 
shapely limbs. Verses which, in spite of the modern 
taste for realism, no woman would care to have 
addressed to her nowadays, could then be read openly 
at the Court of the Duke of Ferrara, together with 
other effusions celebrating the glories of illustrious and 
noble ladies and the valour of princes and gentlemen. 

Muzio had written thirty-five eclogues, divided into 
five books, which first saw the light in 1550, printed 
by Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari and Brothers, and 
dedicated to Signor Antonio d'Oria. The first 
eclogues, wrote the poet, " treat of my loves, and are 
entitled the Amorose ; the second book describes the 
honours and loves of the late Marquis del Vasto and 
the lady Donna Maria of Arragon, his wife, the which 
I have called the Marchesane. In the third, I have 
celebrated various illustrious persons, wherefore I have 
called it the Illustri. In the fourth, I do bewail the 
deaths of persons whose servant I was or to whom 
I was united in the bonds of friendship, and I call it 
the Lugubri ; and because of the variety of the subjects 
treated of in the fifth book it has been fitly named 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 187 

Varie. The Amorose^ therefore, represent the fragrant 
myrtle, the Marchesane the noble laurel, the Illustri 
the lofty cedar, the Luguhri the mournful cypress, 
and the Varie represent divers kinds of trees." 

Neither the Marchioness del Vasto, the Duke and 
Duchess of Mantua, Signor Luigi Gonzaga, the 
Duchess of Savoy, Hercules d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, 
Cardinal Ippolito, the Duchess of Lorraine, Galeotto 
Pico della Mirandola, the Lady Margherita Tizia, 
Countess of Desana, nor the Most Christian King 
Francis scorned to have their names coupled with 
that of Tullia, nor did Donna Maria of Arragon take 
offence because the name of Arragon was borne by 
one whose too freely exhibited charms were extolled 
in these same poems. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that Mopso's verses were pleasing to Tullia, who desired 
to go down to posterity surrounded by that halo of 
glory which she knew so well how to extract from 
poets, and that she showed her gratitude to Muzio 
is to be inferred from one of his letters to Antonio 
Mezzabarba : 

" For some time," he says, " I had celebrated the 
Signora Tullia under the name of Tyrrhenian when, 
as we were talking together one day of these matters, 
in which she has always taken and still continues to 
take such great delight, we began to speak of the 
Muses and of their names and virtues. After we 
had reasoned upon this subject for some time, she 
fell into a silence as though a new thought had 
come to her ; then after a while she began to speak 



i88 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

again and said to me : ' For several days now I have 
cherished an idea in my mind, and now that we are 
upon the subject I will impart it to you. You have 
long sung of me under the name of Tyrrhenian but 
now I desire that you should change my name and 
call me Thalia. But you must do it in such a way 
that all will understand that Tyrrhenia and Thalia are 
one and the same person. Now bethink yourself of 
the way.' I replied that I would obey her wish. I 
will relate everything to you exactly. We were then 
in Ferrara, and between the house where she lodged 
and mine, perchance about half-way, there was a large 
retired space whither I used to withdraw me to walk 
and meditate. And I did not leave this place before 
I had devised a way of carrying out my intention 
and beginning the composition. And I became so 
excited over my subject that when I returned to her 
at the usual hour upon the following day, the thing 
was already accomplished. She can bear witness to 
this and remembers it and has related it unto divers 
persons. And I tell you, upon my faith, that of that 
first draft of the composition which I took her on 
that occasion I do not think I altered fifteen verses 
and there are near two hundred of them. Mine in- 
vention was that Mopso finds himself one night trans- 
ported to Helicon, where he perceives that she whom 
he had loved in the form of a nymph is really Thalia. 
Here he is crowned by Erato and given to drink of 
the water of Hippocrene. Then, in imitation of 
Horace, I imagine that he is turned into a swan and 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 189 

ascends to the circles of the moon. This I did because 
Thalia is supposed to represent the harmony of that 
sphere, and because when in the following eclogue I 
assign to each Muse -her own particular heaven, this 
sphere is made special to Thalia. And the description 
of flower and leaf did I write because the name Thalia 
(as you know) comes from a Greek word which 
signifies growing green, or sprouting, for she gives 
new life to the thoughts of those on whom she sheds 
her favours. And as I had filled Mopso with that 
kind of madness I gave the name to the poem, with 
which I was all the more pleased as I had therein 
described the madness which I myself felt — 

" ' Mopso's madness was likewise mine own.' 

This, then, was the reason wherefore I wrote that 
poem, such was my subject and such mine intention." 
This long letter, proof of the amorous relations 
existing between Muzio and TuUia when in Ferrara, 
shows that whether as Tyrrhenia or Thalia she still 
desired to hold the key of the poet's heart. Their 
respective houses were near each other ; tete-a-tete 
interviews were frequent and tender, inspired by love 
of the Muses (perchance also by a more earthly love), 
and occupied with the studies in which the lady 
delighted and which we trust were confined to the 
subject of poetry. Between her and Muzio existed 
the greatest intimacy ; she addressed him with the 
familiar "thou," and he was ready to obey her 
slightest behest. Apparently she could not persist in 



190 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

denying her poet what he so poetically prayed for, 
and in the fourth eclogue, entitled Thalia, we find 
her less obdurate, less cold, and less proud. Perhaps 
her feelings as a mere woman seemed less mundane and 
more ethereal when disguised as the adventures of a 
Muse ! However it may have been, Mopso's out- 
pourings now betray the fact that she has made him 
happy, and although in this fourth poem he refuses 
to give any details concerning the " great good fortune " 
which has befallen him, for fear of arousing the envy 
of less fortunate men, his lamentations cease and a 
beatific content is the prevailing note of his effusions. 

It was a fact, Tullia responded to Muzio's love ; 
all those poetical metamorphoses of Tyrrhenia into 
Thalia are in the eyes of the curious and incredulous 
only so many proofs of it. Women, even the most 
experienced in love affairs, are sometimes seized with 
scruples and prejudices enough to send the most 
platonic admirer mad with impatience. That a Muse 
should yield to a Poet and thus enable him to sing 
of his good fortune may be perfectly correct according 
to the code of morals of Parnassus and Helicon, but 
it would have been highly improper for Tyrrhenia to 
fall into the arms of Mopso. The loves of nymphs 
and shepherds bore too close a resemblance to those 
of satyrs with dryads and hamadryads, they were 
altogether too much of the earth earthy ; far better 
to remain in mid-air surrounded by a halo of poetry. 

Thus the first book of the Amorous Eclogues, which 
opens with such a vivid and realistic picture of Mopso's, 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 191 

afFections, gradually loses its human interest; Tyrrhenia 
is transformed into Thalia when she has come to terms 
with the poet whose despairing verses threatened to 
compromise her. 

This poetic, if platonic, love affair was suddenly 
interrupted, however, by an order from Duke Her- 
cules of Ferrara, sending Muzio to Milan on political 
business. The luckless official tried to evade the order 
and induce his master to send another in his place, 
even attempting to move him by addressing to him 
certain verses in which the Duke, Muzio, and Tullia 
were represented as a ploughman, a shepherd, and a 
nymph, and the former was implored not to be so 
cruel as to separate the other two. But although the 
Duke was a poet himself, he had sufficient common 
sense not to sacrifice politics to poetry, and he re- 
mained obdurate. Moreover he was probably not 
particularly pleased at hearing himself described as a 
ploughman, and had no mind to pose as an inter- 
mediary in the love affair between Mopso and Thalia 
by revoking the order given. So towards the end of 
June, 1537, Muzio departed, cursing politics, tyrants, 
and all the heartless ways of those in power. He went 
first to Piacenza, thence to Reggio Emilia, and Forli, 
reaching Milan only towards the middle of December. 

His stay in Milan was not a short one, and was, 
moreover, embittered by not receiving either messages 
or letters from Tullia. He began to suffer the tor- 
ments of jealousy and the obstinate silence of his 
beloved fostered suspicion in his mind. Why did 



192 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

she never answer his letters ? A certain little devil 
whispered in his ear that perchance Thalia had listened 
to the flatteries of other adorers, and his misery in- 
creased. He tried to console himself by thinking of 
her and composing poems to her. Apparently she 
lived in some place on the banks of the river Po, for 
the poet envies the river its opportunity of continually 
admiring the fair lady who was as a flower upon its 
bank and a light upon its waves. Like all lovers, he 
was always longing for the presence of the woman 
he looked upon as a heavenly creature : 

"Go, spread your wings, ye mournful sighs of mine. 
And carry thither, where the winds do blow. 
Mine ardent longing unto her I love." 

He gave vent to his complaints in numerous sonnets, 
many of which are obvious imitations from Petrarch, 
but which contain, nevertheless, some note of true 
passion, some new and original idea. Muzio's talent 
was not at its best in sonnets, however ; the artificial 
language of love, which possessed a set phraseology 
and a whole gallery of ready-made imagery, copied 
from the eternal models of Messer Francesco Petrarca, 
rarely gave the poet a chance of directly describing 
his own feelings and sorrows. In these productions 
it is impossible to decide whether the sonnet has been 
inspired by the love, or whether the love is the effect 
of the sonnet ; of the special circumstances of each 
particular rhymer nothing is known, everything is 
merged in one indefinite harmony which often pleases 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 193 

the ear but leaves the heart cold. If we possessed no 
records of the Italian life of those days beyond these 
rhymes and songs, we should be forced to believe that 
the most spiritual platonism reigned alike in the courts 
of princes and in literary and civil society. The 
women were all muses or goddesses, the men all 
shepherds ! Truly, we should be inclined to pity those 
poor knights and unfortunate poets who were obliged to 
live m a perpetual atmosphere of sighings and oglings, 
wherein they must have been even more dreadfully 
bored than we are to-day when we read their verses. 
But although the poets did not alter the style of 
their productions, they were by no means averse in 
the long run to changing the subject and seeking fresh 
muses. Even Muzio presently grew tired of sighing 
for the distant Tullia — 

"Being warmed no longer by the loved rays, 
The burning ardour ceased, I know not when, 
Like fire over which the ash is spread." 

We are not told who the nearer muse was ; we only 
know that, entering the service of Alfonso Davalo 
some time afterwards, he could not resist the charms 
of his "golden Clori," as he called a certain Madonna 
Chiara, with whom he fell in love and whose subse- 
quent death he bewailed in sonnets and elegies. Mopso 
had become changed into Egone, who, perhaps grown 
more cunning in love matters, had obtained from Clori 
two living proofs of her affection, on whom he be- 
stowed the names of Giulio Cesare and Paolo Emilio. 

13 



194 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The fair Tullia does not seem to have been at all 
distressed by Muzio's infidelity, not even when, a few 
years later, he met her again in Florence and once 
more became one of her most favoured admirers. She 
had no lack of lovers. The chorus of praises was not 
silenced by the departure of Muzio, and Tulha turned 
amorous eyes upon other poets of the Ferrarese Court. 
Ercole Bentivoglio alludes openly to this fact in a 
sonnet addressed to her, which begins — 

"Leaving the seven hills, the waters dark 
Of ancient Tiber and the smiling land. 
Thou earnest, Tullia, to set thy fair foot 
On banks of Po and brighten all his shore. 

All evil thoughts in us extinguished were. 
And tender fires and heavenly longings then 
Were born within our souls upon that day 
When thine eyes first upon us turned their gaze." 

She did not disdain the homage of an admirer who 
was younger than Muzio, and the tall poplars growing 
along the banks of the Po were probably discreet 
witnesses of new love-scenes and heard the new lover 
sing of his good fortune in sweetest verse. Hercules 
had been vanquished by Omphale, and, thanks to the 
disguise of a convenient mythology, he was able to 
relate in flowing hendecasyllables his triumphs over 
this new marvel of beauty and coquetry. 

The poplar trunks beside the Po must have been 
all cut over with the name of Tullia, so many were 
the lovers she had won and bound captive to her 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON X95 

chariot wheels. She was a constitutional queen, and 
did not forbid the elect to enter that Parliament where 
there was ample room for all ; and Tullia's Parliament 
was a sort of acaderhy whose members were all under 
an obligation to sing her praises. Nowadays, when 
views on love and women have changed, such an 
academy would be regarded with suspicion, and it 
would be incomprehensible why so many desired to be 
enrolled and how she could be the first to boast of it 
In his dialogue called Bella Infinita d'Amore, in 
which the three characters represented are TuUia 
Benedetto Varchi and Lattanzio Benucci (two Floren- 
tine lovers who did not come on the scene until much 
later), Benucci says that -she may esteem herself 
the happiest of women, for there are, or have 
been, very i^^ amongst those famed in our day as 
excelhng in arms, letters, or any other profession who 
have not loved and honoured her. And I named unto 
her many gentlemen, men of letters of all kinds, lords 
princes, and cardinals, who at all times had resorted 
unto her house as unto a universal and honourable 
academy and who, both in the past and present 
bestowed homage and fame upon her, because of the 
rare and singular gifts of her most noble and courteous 
mind. I had already named an infinite number and 
was about to continue, almost in despite of her, for 
she called out and sought to interrupt me." And 
probably the list was longer than TuUia found 
exactly convenient ! In the seventh Eclogue, entitled 
Tyrrhenian written many years after his first meeting 



196 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

with her, Muzio pretends that Tirsi asks Dameia for 
the names of the shepherds who have " sung and 
burned for her." And Dameta replies that it is quite 
impossible for her to remember them all ! Then 
comes a list of lovers, of whom the principal are 
only indicated under feigned names. There were 
eleven of these, amongst whom, notwithstanding the 
disguise of words, we recognise Varchi, Bernardo 
Tasso, Ercole Bentivoglio, Ludovico Martelli, Muzio, 
Latino Giovenale, Giulio Camillo Delminio, and 
perhaps Claudio Tolomei. But whoever will take 
the trouble to read the Rime delta Signora Tullia e 
di Diversi a Lei, published by Giolit6 in Venice in 
1 547, may easily add the following names to the list : 
Bembo, Ridolfo Baglioni, Francesco Crasso, Molza, 
Colonel Luca Antonio (otherwise Cuppano of Monte- 
falco), Ugolino Martelli, Bernardo Ochino, Emilio 
Tondi, Tiberio Nari, Piero Mannelli, Simone Porzio, 
Lattanzio Benucci, Alessandro Arrighi, Niccolo 
Martelli, Lasca, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, Filippo 
Strozzi, Benedetto Arrighi, Simone dalla Volta, and 
Camillo da Montevarchi. We know also that amongst 
her friends she reckoned Giovambattista Savello, 
Giordano Orsino, Sperone Speroni, Fracastoro, and 
the severe Jacopo Nardi. 

How this by no means ordinary company of gentle- 
men and writers could continue to regard her with 
approving eyes as she dispensed her favours to all 
and sundry is a mystery to us, and must certainly 
have seemed extraordinary to their contemporaries. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 197 

Even Muzio, obstinate and impenitent as he was in 
singing her praises, thought this singular fact demanded 
some explanation, and in his Tyrrhenia he makes Tirsi 
inquire of Dameta how it is that her illustrious lovers 
are not jealous of each other. Dameta explains a 
somewhat subtle theory to show that the love for 
Tullia experienced by so many being a divine senti- 
ment, there was no place in it for jealousy. The 
theory would be all very well if Tullia of Arragon 
had been either Vittoria Colonna, Veronica Gambara, 
or Irene of Spilimbergo ! But the cunning Dameta^ 
relying on Tirsfs credulity, does not risk raising 
this objection, and continues calmly to explain how 
divine love like this differs from the feelings aroused 
by a mere mortal. So far, it being question of a 
general theory only, Tirsi accepts the other's argu- 
ments, but when Dameta grows bolder and adds as 
an instance of her words — 

"Tyrrhenia's flame divine sheds clearest light 
On what I do explain and tell thee here," 

the assertion is a trifle too strong even for the 
credulous shepherd, although at the time when this 
Eclogue was written Tullia was making honourable 
amends for her past life, to which, as Muzio says, she 
had been driven by necessity ; and probably, also, her 
beauty had begun to fade. Dameta' s honeyed words 
were a pill too large for Tirsi to swallow at once, for 
he makes an ironical inquiry which Dameta pretends 
not to hear. 



198 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

This production was dedicated to TuUia, probably 
in 1548, when the poet came to Florence to join 
the republic of love over which she presided. The 
faithful Muzio declares that in his composition there 
" is more affection than artifice," and that he has 
herein endeavoured to give a more detailed description 
of her than any one had yet produced. " And albeit 
my hand is not skilful enough to make a true portrait 
of you, I think I have at least drawn such a shadow 
of you that, just as the shadows of great beauties lead 
our souls gradually to desire true beauty, so by means 
of this shadow of you which I have made, noble spirits 
may rise to the contemplation of that true beauty 
which is in you. Wherefore, such as it is, I send 
it to you. And I will say no more, saving that if 
with your bodily eyes you could see another figure 
which hath long dwelt within my soul, and could 
compare it with yourself, you would not be able to 
discern whether your own image or that in my mind 
was nearest unto that form conceived ah eterno in the 
mind of God, in the likeness of which Nature did 
create you when she determined to ' show here below 
of what she was capable there above.' " 

With these disgraceful praises of interested flatterers 
respect for truth compels us to compare other and 
very different opinions concerning Tullia's virtues, 
expressed in other places by these same admirers, by 
the lady herself, and by observers who were not 
blinded by her attractions. Muzio himself, who had 
idolised her in his poems when she was young and 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 199 

lovely, wrote in his Trattato di Matrimonio^ printed 
amongst his Operette Morali in 1550, that "necessity 
had been the cause of her past life," and with regard 
to her " free will," 'he said that " chance had misled 
it, but that now it was governed by her virtue." And 
Tullia herself, in the preface to the Guerrin Meschino^ 
pubhshed in 1560, four years after her death, did not 
blush to declare that '* it was no new thing that 
because of necessity or other misfortune a woman 
should happen to fall into bodily errors, and no less 
unto herself than unto others doth it appear unseemly 
that she should be dishonest and corrupt in her speech 
and other things." And she thanked God " for His 
great mercy in having, whilst I was not yet very old, 
but still young and fresh, enlightened me so that mine 
heart turned unto Him, and I desired so to act that 
others, both men and women, should do likewise." 

Tullia had now reached the age of repentance, and 
confessed her sins and shortcomings. She renounced 
the sad life she had hitherto led " of necessity" ; she 
reviewed her past, but in her repentance she could not 
resist a posthumous word of praise for that fatal beauty 
which had led her into so many errors. She was 
sincerely contrite, but she had not entirely overcome 
either her ambitions as a beautiful woman or her love 
of flattery. She wanted it to be clearly understood 
that she gave herself to God of her own free will and 
not because the devil was tired of her ! No, her 
repentance was doubly meritorious, seeing that her 
still youthful charms would permit of further adven- 



200 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

tures. She knew herself to be beautiful and she 
ofFered all her attractions and physical graces as a 
sacrifice to the Lord. Her repentance, therefore, was 
all the more sincere because she found it very hard to 
renounce the world and all its delights. 

But were those praises which accompanied her 
throughout her long career all lies } Were they 
all deceivers, those lovers who were now shedding 
crocodile's tears over her past life .? 

There is a reverse to every medal. We have seen 
Tullia of Arragon wearing the poet's crown of laurel, 
let us glance at her now as she appears beneath the 
yellow veil of the courtesan. 



V 



TN one of those dialogues by Sperone Speroni, in 
-*- which every one longed and prayed to have a 
place, we meet Tullia of Arragon again, as a sort of 
second Diotima, discoursing of love with Bernardo 
Tasso in the presence of Niccolo Grazia and Francesco 
Maria Molza. 

The fair enchantress had forgotten Muzio and 
Bentivoglio for Bernardo Tasso, just as she had 
forsaken the banks of the Po for the wider attractions 
of the Lagoons. The scene of this dialogue, appro- 
priately called (T Amove ^ is laid in Venice about the 
year 1537, at the time when Bernardo was preparing 
to take his departure and " go to inhabit Salerno," 
and the subject of the discussion is provided by certain 
questions on love which have arisen between Tasso and 
" his Lady." In this dialogue, which Pietro Aretino 
compared to the Pantheon in Rome because of the 
perfection of its construction, the characters taking 
part in it talk of their affairs with a frankness and 
freedom which seems very strange to us nowadays. 
In treating of this subject Speroni had wisely not 



202 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

represented himself as being one of the characters 
joining in the discussion, as Tullia did in the dialogue 
which she afterwards wrote in opposition to this. 
Thus he was able to call a spade a spade. The 
Paduan writer does not represent Tasso's beloved as 
being troubled with those platonic scruples which she 
used to parade when Muzio was her champion ; she 
is apparently introduced for the purpose of discussing 
free love between free persons, and she casts ofF all 
useless pretences, declaring that, in order to be true 
and perfect, love must be fulfilled in all its conditions, 
material and spiritual. 

As represented in prose (and prose written by those 
who knew her thoroughly), Tullia is no longer either 
Tyrrhenia or Thalia ; she knows her position and 
accepts it, such as it is and such as men and hazard 
have made it, without any of that poetical hypocrisy 
which could only deceive a complacent and time- 
serving lover. Her own mistress, she held certain 
excessively liberal theories on love ; she held that, in 
order to be perfect, love must be freed from all 
restraint, and she was jealous, because she feared that 
some other more adventurous woman might steal her 
lover from her as she herself had stolen him from 
a rival. She was afraid of losing Tasso's love, because 
she knew herself for what she was. *' I know what 
I am," she said frankly, " and what I ought to be in 
order to be worthy of him ; but I will either change 
my whole life and become the kind of woman 1 
desire to be, or I will die in the attempt." For her 




Phoh2 



A COURTESAN, BY PARIS BORDONE. 



[Aliiuvi. 
[To face page 203. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 203 

consolation Grazia made the following somewhat too 
significant reply : — 

" Take comfort, Signora Tullia, for I lately read a 
discourse by Broccardo spoken in honour of courtesans, 
in which he praised them in such a way that if Lucrece 
came to life again and heard it she would assuredly 
lead no other life than this. Having shown that the 
life of a courtesan is proper to women and that to live 
in any other way is going against nature, who created 
them for this end, he goes on to prove, amongst other 
things, that their manners and customs are a way and 
a means leading unto the knowledge of God. For, as 
the courtesan for various reasons loves many men — 
one because he is rich, another because he is handsome, 
another because he is virtuous — and to all in turn and 
in varying proportions distributes her favours, whilst 
she gives her heart to one only and for his sake 
reforms, so does God shed His grace in varying 
degrees upon mortal things, making them more or 
less perfect, according to their nature and office." 

But Tullia objected to hear herself praised for being 
a woman of this kind, and answered : — 

" I desire that you should put all poetry on one side, 
and should only consider the servitude, vileness, base- 
ness and inconstancy of this life, cursing those who do 
uphold it, and making all excuses for those who fell 
into these errors when young and foolish, and who 
[if such there are) seek to escape from it, appeal- 
ing to those who, by admonishing and assisting, are 
able to raise them up out of their misery. Broccardo 



204 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

only chose to favour such a dishonest cause because 
of the love he bore unto some one, or else that he 
might better make exhibition of his wit." 

As has been shown, TuUia was desirous of leading 
a better life, and thus making people forget her recent 
wanderings from the straight path. She aimed at 
what is now called " rehabilitation," showing herself 
to be an exception to the rule and widely different 
from her countless companions. The other person- 
ages of the dialogue, however, did not seem convinced, 
and the contrite air which she assumed in the presence 
of Bernardo Tasso, who probably knew how far to 
believe such sailor's oaths, might easily be looked upon 
as a fresh piece of acting. Grazia liked plain-speaking, 
and preferred an honest courtesan to a false penitent ; 
wherefore he maintained that a courtesan need not 
necessarily be either vile or base, and turning to Tullia 
he said : — 

'*Such a one was Sappho, and such was she from 
whom Socrates, a most wise and excellent man, learned 
what manner of thing was love and gloried in the 
knowledge. Deign, therefore, to be the third in such 
a worthy company, and pray Love that out of these 
our discussions he will make a tale wherein your name 
shall find a place in no wise inferior to that held by 
Diotima in the dialogues of Plato." 

The fact is plain ; whoever wrote the Dialogo was 
not afraid to call a spade a spade, and to tell Tullia 
to her face that she was one of those women " who 
make a profession of living by their beauty." Speroni, 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 205 

speaking by the mouth of Grazia, adds moreover, 
that in her " Tasso found delight for all his senses." 
How different is all this, alas ! from the delicate 
fancies of Muzio, the Arcadian hypocrisy of admira- 
tion, and the Platonism which produced the Tyrrhenia ! 
Nor must it be supposed that Speroni was one of 
TuUia's detractors, or that, moved by jealousy or 
some other base reason, he deliberately sought to 
defame her character. " Poetry aside," as she herself 
says, worse things were said of her in prose. In his 
letter of June 6, 1537, in which he praises Speroni's 
Dialogo d'Amore up to the skies, Pietro Aretino 
writes that, " By this means TuUia has gained a 
treasure which will never grow less ; and because 
of the honour here bestowed upon it, her wantonness 
may be justly envied even by the most modest and 
the most fortunate." Truly the Paduan writer had 
been too kind to her in naming her in such a work ! 
But this was not the worst. In his comedy La 
Balia (Florence, 1560), Girolamo Razzi gives her 
the title that properly belongs to her, but at least 
he recognises " her noble mind " and " high spirit." 
Pietro Aretino, however, who frequented the society 
of ladies of this class, gives an account of TuUia's 
humble origin in a certain work called the Ragionamento 
del Zoppino^ wherein he treats of the life and genealogy 
of all the courtesans of Rome. After describing how 
many persons paid court to her for the sake of deriv- 
ing reflected glory from her supposed noble origin, 
he says in conclusion : " Thus ye may see to what 



2o6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

families these creatures claim to belong, making 
themselves noble, and unto what low things they 
persuade greatness." Even worse things than these 
were written about her by Giovanni Battista Giraldi 
Cintio, who certainly knew her before she appeared 
in Ferrara, resplendent in youth and beauty ; for not 
only does he attribute to her a perverse nature and a 
character which exercised a baleful influence on all 
who were acquainted with her, but he even denies 
her the possession of physical beauty. His enmity 
has given rise to the suspicion that Giraldi had been 
an adorer who had adored in vain and that his words 
were prompted by jealous revenge ; but without wishing 
to slander TuUia in any way, I can hardly imagine 
that she would refuse any man's homage, however 
little acceptable she might find it, because therein 
precisely lay her art, the craftiness of the finished 
courtesan. It suffices, moreover, to note that Tale 
VIL of the introduction to the Ecatommiti^ that in 
which TuUia appears, is one of the ten which prove 
" that, of all human loves, the only peaceful one is 
that existing between husband and wife, and that in 
unlawful love there is no repose " ; and one under- 
stands immediately that, in order to maintain his 
theory, Giraldi was obliged to come down heavily 
upon wanton women and their dishonest wiles. 

There is no need to indulge in speculation in 
order to find an explanation of Giraldi's aversion to 
Tullia, for in the introduction to the Ecatommiti he 
declares his feelings openly. Women of evil life, he 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 207 

says, are " wolves, whirlpools, and rapacious harpies " ; 
they constitute "a sea of evil, the confusion of the 
world, a constant trouble, a perpetual war, a danger 
which increases from, day to day, inevitable shipwreck, 
a mortal hindrance, a vessel of adultery, an inn of 
villainy, an insupportable burden, a murderous serpent, 
and, finally, they cause certain destruction of the posses- 
sions, lives and honour of men." According to him, 
"where there is no honesty there is no justice, and 
where there is no justice there is no goodness, and 
where there is no goodness there is no beauty. 
Therefore, as these women are dishonest they are not 
just, and not being just they are not good, and not 
being good they are not beautiful. 

" So much wickedness is hidden beneath outward 
beauty, and certain talents, such as singing, playing, 
graceful dancing, and the gift of speaking softly and 
composing a few little things on love, which are as 
snares to catch the simple, only disguise a hideous 
and abominable soul ; wherefore it may truly be said : 
' How sad it is that such rooms should be inhabited 
by such evil mistresses.' ... For they are like the 
sepulchres, which without are white, smooth, clean and 
pohshed, and often ornamented with gold, whilst within 
there is naught save horrors and putrefaction. Where- 
fore who observes them well will perceive that the 
semblance of true beauty which they display outwardly 
IS nothing but a dangerous precipice, a pestilential 
poison. ..." In short, according to Giraldi, their 
beauty is not beauty, but only " a shadow of it." It 



2o8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

is not surprising, therefore, that in the tale of Saulo 
and Nana he gives such an unpleasant picture of 
Tullia of Arragon. 

*' She says she is born of the House of Arragon," 
he writes, " although I understand that her mother 
was of the lowest and led that same manner of life 
as she herself ; that she was born in some ditch, and 
that her mother could never say who was her father. 
Being arrived in our city (Rome), where now, by 
reason of the evil customs of our times, there are 
more like unto her than is seemly, she applied herself 
to earning money dishonestly, attracting youths by 
that outward semblance of virtue of which we have 
already spoken. And not only did she draw to 
herself inexperienced youths, but even mature and 
learned men, whom she led into all sorts of foolishness 
by her promises and then held up to ridicule, leaving 
her promises unfulfilled." 

This portrait, however, can scarcely be a true one ; 
surely the colouring is too exaggerated, the arts de- 
scribed are too vulgar to have been employed by a 
woman who was certainly not lacking in refinement ! 
If her wiles and deceptions had been such as are here 
set forth, would not one victim speedily have warned 
and saved others ,? If Tullia had not been beautiful and 
easy to win, how could she have attracted such a host of 
admirers } For the sake of upholding his own theory 
Giraldi departs from the truth when he affirms that 
" her face was anything but pleasing " ; he describes 
her as possessing a wide mouth with thin lips, a 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 209 

long nose which was thick at the end and calculated 
to spoil any face, however lovely otherwise, but having 
quick, bright eyes which seemed to kindle a flame 
in every heart. 

In his tale, moreover, he tells how Saulo, a *' fair 
and courteous youth," fell in love with Nana, but 
in order to avoid describing her as beautiful, he says 
that she had blinded his eyes with her arts. 

It might be better, however, not to pursue further 
the comparison between Tullia and Nana of the tale, 
for the latter, although in love with Saulo, sells herself 
to a vile German, and thereby so covers herself with 
disgrace in the eyes of all the Roman youth that she 
is forced to flee from the city. 

If any one's eyes were blinded they were certainly 
those of Giovanni Battista Giraldi, who forgot alike 
the art of the novelist and the pitiful restraint of the 
gentleman. Even Pasquino did not wish her to 
die "in an hospital, stricken by divine justice and 
full of incurable ills." This was the moral ending the 
Ferrarese novelist gave to his story, a moral, if the 
truth must be said, scarcely in accrodance with 
Christian charity ! 



14 



VI 



T T is uncertain precisely at what period TuUia of 
-*■ Arragon quitted Venice and took up her temporary 
abode in Siena, where, according to documents pre- 
served in the archives of that city, she found it 
advisable to have a regular domestic establishment 
and a legal protector for her already fading beauty. 
Unknown, too, is the real reason which impelled her 
to settle in Siena, and there to accept that which, she 
had refused in Ferrara, namely, a husband. 

But TuUia was no longer young, and advancing 
years had, doubtless, taught her the wisdom of placing 
herself under the protection of the law, following the 
example of others of her class, in order to avoid 
the rigorous rules which had been drawn up for the 
conduct and control of courtesans. As Cesare Vecellio 
says, in his Habiti Antichi e Moderni^ by giving the 
name of husband to some creature base enough to 
accept it, they were able to enjoy that luxury and that 
freedom in dress which the law otherwise forbade them. 
TuUia was now about thirty-seven years of age, and 
was nearing that fatal forty which is, or should be, the 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 211 

signal for a woman to put away all thought of love 
or frivolity. On January 8, 1543, she was united in 
matrimony to Silvestro dei Guicciardi, a Ferrarese, 
who had probably accompanied her to Siena, and there 
taken upon himself the thankless and undesirable 
office of husband to the famous courtesan. The 
marriage took place on a Tuesday, with all the rites 
and forms prescribed by Church and law, and with 
exchange of rings, and the marriage certificate, signed 
by a certain Sigismondo Manni Ugolini, may be seen 
in the State Archives of Siena. 

The marriage was useful, even if it was not happy, 
for only a few months afterwards Tullia was accused 
of having disobeyed the Siennese law by living outside 
the quarter to which courtesans were restricted, and 
wearing forbidden garments. Now she was able (on 
February 5, 1 544) to present herself before the officers 
of the law and exhibit the certificate of her marriage 
with Guicciardij by virtue of which she obtained from 
the magistrate (who was, it may be noted, provided with 
full and precise information concerning her life, habits, 
and character) a public decree declaring her in no way 
affected by the law relating to women of loose lives, 
and consequently free to live where she pleased and 
dress as behoved a lady of rank and irreproachable 
character. If her newly acquired legal position had 
not made her virtuous, it had at least placed her 
beyond the reach of the law and its penalties, and 
henceforth she was safe. 

Considering the strict observance of the forms of 



212 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

the statutes, as proved by the magistrate's action, it 
would be interesting to know the exact terms of the 
indictment drawn up in the Curia of the Captain of 
Justice and written out by Ser Lattanzio Lucarini, 
who, as a good lawyer, succeeded in proving the 
rectitude of TuUia's life and habits. But unfortunately 
the document has, so far, not been discovered amongst 
the Siennese archives, where in all probability the 
sagacious Lucarini took good care not to leave it ! 
It appears, however, that the truthfulness of the 
magistrate's decree was not universally believed, for 
on the 23rd of August of this same year 1544, an 
anonymous accusation was placed in the receptacle 
for secret denunciations, to the effect that " on the 
Feast of the Holy Spirit, the Signora Tullia did 
unlawfully wear a shernia (a sort of cap)." In spite 
of the magisterial decree, the people persisted in 
regarding Tullia as a woman of disreputable character, 
and in appealing against the permission granted her 
to dress as a noble lady and an honest person. But 
the Captain of Justice could only point to the 
verdict already pronounced, and pay no attention to 
the accusation. A husband may be of some use, 
after all ! 

Considerable doubt has been thrown on this mar- 
riage, although Muzio alluded to it in the treatise 
which he wrote on the subject of matrimony, and 
dedicated to Tullia, congratulating her on the new 
and safer position which put an end to her adventurous 
life, adding that he had been forced to leave her, both 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 213 

for her honour and his own. The words he addresses 
to her are really noble, such as he might have written 
to any woman of spotless character. An unwavering 
admirer, Muzio maintained that Tullia had been 
virtuous in every act and deed ; but that, nevertheless, 
when withdrawn into tedious sohtude and without a 
"marital companion," even such a very virtuous life 
as Tuliia's might have been " torn and bitten by the 
teeth of the malicious." His had been a virtuous 
love, and if men had only known the truth of the 
matter they would have judged him and his passion 
very differently. They would have recognised a new 
and rare example of " virtuous love," because virtue 
alone impelled him to love her, virtue kept him 
long captive to her "sweet companionship," and 
virtue caused him finally to withdraw. " Virtue, 
virtue, virtue ! " cried Muzio in his loudest voice, but, 
nevertheless, the malicious continued to bite and mock, 
like Firenzuola, who wrote in his novel about the 
woman who sold the cask : 

" Thou deservest to have a creature like Tullia, who 
did gain her living by adultery, and left her husband 
to die of hunger." 

In order that he might not end in this miserable 
manner, the good Silvestro determined to leave his 
wife. There are no records to be found of Tuliia's 
life with Guicciardi, but it was certainly of short 
duration, for he is not mentioned again by any 
chronicler ; and soon afterwards she quitted Siena, 
free and without her "marital companion," to seek 



tm 



214 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

a fresh scene for her performances, one which would 
be safer than this city, racked by civil strife, and where, 
moreover, all her sympathies lay with the vanquished 
party. It pleased TuUia, who had herself been van- 
quished in so many amorous contests, to take the 
weaker side ; and in a sonnet addressed to Emilio Tondi 
on the death of his brother Ottaviano, who fell in the 
tumult of 1544, as also in another to Francesco Crasso 
" written in the name of the Siennese exiles," she 
frankly admits that her heart, or at least her protectors, 
belong to the fallen faction. Even when in 1546 she 
came to Florence, to take refuge beneath the wings 
of the " new Tuscan Numa," Duke Cosimo L, she 
did not attempt to conceal her affection for those who, 
like her, had deserted Siena. She declared that she 
had been drawn to " the happy banks of Arno from 
Arbia, whence all great souls have now fled," an 
expression probably suggested by the hatred which 
she bore against the instigators of the " Siennese 
revolt." She wrote another sonnet to the Duke, 
praying him to grant her peace and hospitality, and 
saying that the only thing she humbly desired was 
that her spirit might rest in his Court, safe from a 
threatened imminent death, and that her poor body 
might dwell within his wealthy gates. From this it 
would appear that she had been in actual peril of her 
life during the tumults in Siena, just as she ran the 
risk of losing her liberty through marriage. 

Tullia probably arrived in Florence in the winter 
of 1545-46, because Niccolo Martelli, one of her 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON . 215 

Florentine adorers, celebrated her coming in a sonnet 
which began — 

" What light is this, what beauty without end, 
Which makes our frozen shores to bloom and smile 
As doth the sun in midst of April's month ? " 

Tullia appears to have left Siena but scantily 
furnished with necessaries and in a miserable condition 
both of mind and body. But although she must by 
now have passed the fatal fortieth year, we gather 
from a letter written by Niccolo Martelli that she still 
resembled the portrait painted by Bonvicino. Praising 
her after the fashion of the sixteenth century, Mar- 
telli says that she was " so beautiful that her delicate 
face still retained that angelic look which it formerly 
possessed." And he goes on to describe her attractions 
detail by detail. " The whiteness of your flesh, which 
puts alabaster and purest snow to shame, has been 
kept fresh by your moderation and continence, not \ 

only in eating but in everything else, so that ye do 
still appear unto the eyes of others bearing all the 
gracious signs of love in your face." 

Her mental qualities, however, surpassed her 
physical ones. Even the incredulous Florentines were 
filled with astonishment on hearing her " sing so 
sweetly and play upon any kind of instrument with 
her fair, white hand. Her conversation, too, accom- 
panied by virtuous behaviour and courteous manners, 
caused men to sigh with chaste desires." And what 
shall be said of her eloquence, whether in private 



2i6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

or in public ? Martelli asserts that, even though there 
was once a Tullio of Arpino, the world can now justly 
boast of a Tullia of Arragon, and that, although she 
might not be superior to either Sappho or Corinne, her 
courtesy and lofty spirit surpassed anything of which 
their present age could boast. 

Tullia's white hand already held the key to every 
heart in Florence, and the same honours were paid her 
on the banks of the Arno which had been accorded 
her in Ferrara and Venice. She was surrounded by 
a throng of aspirants and poets, held captive by her 
glances, smiles, and songs. But it was less a new lover 
that she was in search of now than a powerful pro- 
tector in whom she could trust, and as she usually 
conferred her favours on the strongest of her admirers 
in order that she might pursue her own way under 
the shadow of his protection, she had no difficulty, 
amongst so many men of letters, in choosing one to 
whom she should award the palm. And the man 
whom Tullia selected as a lover suitable for her 
purpose, probably fixing her mind upon him even 
before she came to Florence, was Benedetto Varchi. 

Only recently returned to Florence, recalled by 
Duke Alessandro that he might read before the 
Accademia degli Umidi, Benedetto Varchi was so 
famous for his literary works and his science that 
people ran out into the street to stare at him as he 
passed by. He was a genuine example of the typical 
scholar of the Cinquecento, always oscillating between 
vice and virtue, for which reason he was both ex- 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 217 

travagantly praised and bitterly blamed. On this 
man Tullia had cast her eyes, and women of her stamp 
love with the head before they love with the senses, 
for the heart is scarcely concerned ! Nihil est in 
sensu quod non prius fuerit in intellectu^ nisi ipse sensus. 
If any capricious fancy takes them, they go on search- 
ing for their ideal man through an infinite series of 
experiments, until the final disappointment, more 
bitter than all the rest, impels them to seek in a mystical 
world the ideal they never succeeded in finding in the 
world of reality. 

Tullia felt drawn toward Varchi as much by a 
certain resemblance in their circumstances and ad- 
ventures as by his fame and her ambition. He, also, 
had been attacked by public opinion, and his name, 
like hers, had been on the lips of all, now accompanied 
by most extraordinary praise, now by infamous 
accusations. In the previous year, 1545, the more 
than forty-year-old poet had been dragged from his 
villa at Careggi (where he had hoped to spend the 
spring quietly, out of the reach of unjust and malicious 
tongues), and thrown into the secret prisons of the 
Bargello by order of the Council of Eight. He was 
accused of a shameful crime, and on March 26th was 
condemned to pay a heavy fine, but on giving security 
for the payment of the sum, he was immediately set at 
liberty. This affair filled the whole city with excite- 
ment ; Varchi's enemies, both secret and acknow- 
ledged, rejoiced at his disgrace, whilst his friends 
talked to the Duke, wrote to Rome and everywhere 



2i8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

else in Italy and obtained letters from prelates and 
princes addressed to the Duke on Varchi's behalf. 
And the Duke, says Busini, was willing to pardon 
him if he would only confess to the crime, in order 
to " partially correct and cover the fault committed 
by those citizens who were of the Eight, in having 
so hastily imprisoned him without any cause what- 
soever." Moreover " his allowance was increased to 
fifty-five ducats a month and he was commissioned 
to write the history of Florence from the year 1527, 
when, to regain its liberty, the whole city took up 
arms against the Medici." 

After this unpleasant episode, Varchi seems to have 
retired into the country, and he was probably away 
from Florence at the time ot Tullia's arrival. She 
greeted his return to the city with a poetical effusion 
wherein she frankly expressed her delight at the 
prospect of finding in him at once a protector and a 
lover, and that without any further danger to himself. 
During his absence she had constantly endeavoured 
to lure him to her side ; she was afraid lest a country 
life and the pleasures of solitude should wean the 
poet's heart from more human affections, and she 
quickly made it clear to him, in flowing verse, how 
greatly she longed to be near him and to taste with 
him the sweetness of a rustic idyll, wherein she would 
play the nymph to his shepherd — Phyllis to his some- 
what mature Damon. Varchi appears to have been 
unwilling for fresh adventures and not inclined to be 
tempted ; but the lady had made up her mind to have 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 219 

him for her own, and she returned to the assault with 
new verses, in which she praised his "immortal worth," 
asked why he resisted her and refused her invitations, 
begged him at least to write something in her honour, 
and assured him that she would spend the rest of her 
life in singing his praises, save that she feared to weary 
him. Tullia's pride was nettled ; that a mere scholar, 
a solemn prig of forty-three, should scorn the favours 
that young men of position had envied and prayed for ! 

At last Varchi gave way and made a suitable and 
poetical answer to her addresses. And, the ice being 
now broken, Messer Benedetto returned to Florence, 
and, having seen the lady, found himself quite unable 
to carry out his intention of keeping her at a frigid 
distance. He fell in love with her with all the ardour 
of a humanist suffering from an enforced abstinence 
from the gentler emotions ; but his conscience pricked 
him, nevertheless, and whilst pouring out his passion 
in verse he reproached himself for not being better able 
to restrain his feelings, lamenting that prudence had 
not come to him with his white hair. But reproaches 
and repentance were useless now. Tullia and Tullia 
alone filled all his thoughts ; Phyllis and Damon 
adored each other, and their verses were full of sighs, 
jealousy and reconciliation. Tullia sent her poetical 
efforts to her lover that he might correct and improve 
them ; she wanted him not only to love her, but also 
to sing her praises. 

The correspondence, begun in rhyme, was continued 
in prose, and valuable proof of the friendship between 



220 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

them is contained in Tullia's letters, preserved amongst 
many others addressed to Varchi in the Maglia- 
bechiana Library. But TuUia was more reserved 
in her prose writings and did not indulge in such 
expansive revelations of her feelings ; she addresses 
him by the formal you^ calls him her " dear master," 
and treats him with great respect. The earliest of 
these letters bears the date of January 28, 1546, 
and it is evident that a certain coolness had already 
sprung up between the two lovers. 

" My DEAR Master, — Albeit it would seem that 
your lordship has entirely forgotten me, a thing hard 
for me to believe ; I will not do the same unto you, 
indeed I neither can nor will. Rather will I continue 
to do as always, to remember, love, serve, and honour 
you with all my might. And in order that you may 
at least remember me when you do behold something 
of mine, I send you a sonnet, and I pray you, of the 
courtesy which you do always show me, that you 
will do me the favour of giving it that perfection 
which it lacks and sending it back to me as speedily 
as possible. And if I can be of service to you, 
command me, for I have no greater desire than to 
serve you. And holding myself ready to do your 
pleasure, with all my heart, I do commend myself 
unto you, together with Penelope and the others. 

"Written the 28th day of January, 1546 
" Your 

" TULLIA OF ArRAGON." 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON . 221 

The correspondence between the poet and his muse 
was certainly continued, probably with the same 
apparent reserve ; but between January and August, 
1546, no other letters have been found, except the 
following, which belongs to the end of the latter 
month and is much warmer in expression, although 
touched here and there with a tender melancholy. 
Tullia wrote from her country villa, situated appa- 
rently beside the little river Mensola, for a sonnet 
addressed to her by Lattanzio Benucci, another of her 
adorers, bears this title. From the banks of the 
*' little river," whose stream was diminished by " the 
burning summer heat," the fair lady wrote thus to her 
Benedetto : — 

" If I were not so accustomed to the buffetings of 
my evil and hostile fate, I make no doubt that I should 
pour out my complaints unto you with but little regard 
for the trouble which I should thereby cause you, 
seeing that you are as mine own soul, for perchance 
I should thereby lessen mine affliction. I came hither 
last Sunday ; on Monday came Arrigo ; on Tuesday 
came Doctor de' Benucci and is here still. To-day 
my mother has been seized with a violent fever, and 
I know not what it is ; but for my misfortune I 
do always think the worst, so that I have no comfort 
at any time or place. I know that in this matter ye 
will understand a part of my trouble. Messer Ugolino 
came hither to see me yesterday, and seems rightly 
to be in Paradise, I am beside myself, and until 



222 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

I do see how my mother's sickness turns out I shall 
not have an hour of peace. I leave you to imagine 
how greatly, loving you as I do, I have need of your 
presence for my consolation. I do think ye could 
come here, and stay sometimes here and sometimes in 
Florence, if ye did judge it well so to do. Many 
things I will keep to tell you by word of mouth. 
Come hither only when it is convenient for you, 
for I would not that ye should start upon the journey 
until such time as it suits you. I send you four old 
sonnets of mine and one new one for yourself; 
I know that it may be commended, unto J 0^3 
like the others, -being your own creature. I send 
you back the other of yours because you have not yet 
had it copied ; the copy made for you shall be mine, 
and I will give you the one you sent me the other day. 
I write unto you without any spirit, which you have 
taken ; without heart, which is yours ; all the rest of 
me is sad because of you and because of mine adverse 
fortune, so that ye will find neither verse, nor good 
prose, nor sweetness whatsoever. I am, as ever, yours : 
I love you as much as I should and can ; I desire nothing 
save to see you here and that my mother should 
recover. I commend all the women unto you ; I 
did welcome the plums as I do everything from 
you ; the turtle-doves died on the way here, where- 
fore Penelope is in despair. Speak sometimes with 
my words ; remember the poor dead ; love me ; 
think of me, as I do think at all times of you. 
If I do trouble you, you must blame your own 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 223 

goodness which makes me approach you with so great 
assurance. 

"Written at the villa on the 25th day of August, 
1546. " From your servant, 

" TULLIA OF ArRAGON." 

From this letter it appears that even at her villa 
Tullia did not lack the distractions of pleasant and 
learned society. Dr. Benucci, one of the interlocutors 
of the dialogue SuW Infinita d'Amore, Ugolino Martelli, 
Bishop of Glandeva, Alessandro Arrighi (and not 
Arrigo Marte, as the learned Bongi supposed, through 
an error in the copying), frequently enjoyed Tullia's 
hospitality in her country retreat. As she betrays 
in her letter, Tullia was by no means happy, and her 
melancholy report of herself and her longing for the 
comfort of his presence should assuredly have moved 
the heart of the excellent Varchi, who, as a sign of 
his love, had sent her a basket of plums and to 
Penelope two doves, which died on the way, however, 
to the child's great grief. 

Of Tullia's sojourn with her family beside the 
little Mensola we have no further records, we do not 
even know whether Varchi paid his ladylove the 
begged-for visit there. That their friendship continued 
is proved, however, by the following letter, written in 
November, 1546. 

"My dear Master, — If anything could make me 
feel more deeply indebted to you than doth your virtue 



224 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and natural goodness, without doubt the too great 
courtesy which ye do show me with your gifts would 
more than suffice thereto. But seeing that I cannot 
feel more obliged than I do at present, I do render 
unto you for your gift the most abundant thanks 
of which I am capable. And I do pray your lordship 
that you will not burden me with any more proofs 
of your courtesy ; for my shoulders are small and 
weak, and are already bent by the great weight laid 
upon them. And it doth trouble me all the more in 
that I know I am not able to make you a proper return 
for your courtesy, not even a return of partial value, let 
alone the whole. Like God, ye must accept the good- 
ness of mine heart and the greatness of my spirit, and 
ye must blame fortune, who is contrary to the fair and 
just desires of valiant hearts. We all await your 
lordship eagerly, and pray you to come and visit us 
if you can. I do never distrust your goodness or 
lovingkindness. Indeed, I do trust in that alone, nor 
seek or hope for any other aid, favour, or counsel save 
from your perfect judgment, your good feeling to us 
and your infinite courtesy. And such, and at your 
service do I remain, together with my mother and 
Penelope, and all the other persons in the house ; and 
with all our hearts we do commend ourselves unto you, 
praying God that He will restore you to health and 
keep you happy. 

"Given in Florence on the 19th day of November, 
ber, 1 546. " Your servant, 

" TuLLIA OF ArRAGON." 



"ff-iffrriar 



VII 



TN the meantime, although still carrying on the 
^ Phyllis and Damon idyll with Varchi, TuUia began 
a new intrigue with a young man only twenty-four 
years old, handsome and well-born, of whom the 
courtesan had suddenly become enamoured. This was 
Piero di Lionardo di Niccolo Mannelli, born on 
August 4, 1522, and of sufficiently attractive appear- 
ance to strike the fancy of even such an experienced 
critic and huntress of manly beauty as was Tullia. 
She wrote him verses and sonnets (whether she invoked 
Varchi's assistance in the composing of them is not 
recorded !), and she loved him as sometimes a courtesan 
does love, when, after having sacrificed to all the gods 
of Olympus, she feels the necessity of worshipping with 
a special cult some god of her own devising. 

It is probable that this new fancy was the last of her 
love affairs, but the noble youth whom she pursued 
with her ardent and imperious adoration seems either 
to have treated her with indifference or to have 
tormented her frequently with jealousy and reproaches. 
The motive which impelled this proud woman to own 
herself vanquished and a prisoner of love, in spite 

15 «5 



226 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

of humiliating repulses and refusals, must have been 
one of those tardy passions which sweep all before 
them, and, like the smallpox, leave an ineffaceable 
mark on their victims. That this was so is proved by 
the fact that Tullia's best sonnet, the one which is 
quoted and included in all collections of poetry, is one 
addressed to Mannelli, wherein she deplores being 
caught again in the toils of love. Roughly translated, 
it runs as follows : — 

" That eager nightingale who did escape 
From hated cage, and through the smiling land 
Flew swift to liberty and happy life 
Midst leafy branches and the woodland green, 
Was I myself, escaped from amorous bond, 
Mocking the martyrdom and bitter pains 
Of th' unspeakable grief those bear in themselves 
Whose souls are wounded with too frequent love. 
Again had I resumed the ways and garb 
Which in Ciprigna's time I always wore. 
And boasted proudly of their excellence, 
When Love spake to me : ' Now thy stubborn will 
I'll change,' said he ; and captive to thy power 
He made me straight, and all my pain renewed." 

This, as are also the other poems addressed to her 
youthful lover, is an obvious imitation of Petrarch ; but, 
nevertheless, they all betray the intensity of the flame 
which was consuming the heart of the poor courtesan, 
who, after having jested with the tender passion for so 
many years, was now herself feeling all the pangs of love 
despised which she had so often inflicted on others. 

Nothing further is known concerning Tullia's love 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 227 

affair with the young Florentine ; how long it lasted, 
how it ended, or whether it was known to Varchi 
and her other adorers. Seeing, however, that her 
sonnets to Mannelli were published during her lifetime, 
and that, according to the customs of those days, a 
woman was allowed to have several lovers at the same 
time, it may be supposed that she made no mystery 
of her relations with Mannelli. It is certain that when 
Muzio came to Florence in connection with his 
unfortunate mission to Siena, he realised that his place 
in Tullia's affections was now occupied by another, and 
that he must content himself with a merely platonic 
friendship. 

Many years had elapsed between Muzio's first meet- 
ing with Tullia and the time when he saw her again 
in 1 546, at which period he was in the service of Don 
Ferrante Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, who was 
employing him to try and persuade the town of Siena 
to submit once more to Imperial rule. In the mean- 
time the poet politician had written, fought, travelled 
and loved much, and had also taken an active part in 
the religious questions then rife, and which had been 
chiefly aroused by Pier Paolo Vergerio, once Muzio's 
friend, but now persecuted by him in his quality of 
fervent Catholic. 

Muzio did not succeed in his mission to Siena, 
because the Siennese declined to listen to his flatteries, 
and he had the mortification of seeing another secretary 
despatched to the Imperial Court upon this business. 
His afliicted soul derived much comfort, however, from 



228 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

the circumstance that when he went to Florence to 
confer with the Grand Duke upon Siennese affairs, he 
was able to see his dear Tullia again. Although 
he was no longer the elegant courtier of Ferrarese days, 
and had his mind filled with more serious matters, 
already longing to be called " The Scourge of the 
Heretics," Muzio could not forget the fascinating 
Tyrrhenia. Neither had Tullia forgotten her ardent 
shepherd, and in a fine sonnet, whereby she sought 
to comfort him for the injustice he had suffered, she 
expresses the hope that he will once again sing her 
praises : — 

" I hope that by the Arno's banks my name 
In clearest notes by thee '11 again be sung." 

Seeing her surrounded by scholars, warriors, and 
lords of high degree, and finding no mystery made of 
the fact that Varchi's protection was not a disinterested 
one, Muzio accepted the platonic invitation and limited 
his homage to speeches and verses. Varchi was 
prominent amongst Tullia's court as a sort of official 
protector and looked down upon the new arrival 
with the Olympic disdain of a man sure of his position. 
None the less does he place it on record in his famous 
dialogue UErcolano^ wherein he discusses the ever-green 
question of the Italian tongue, that he held a long 
conversation with Muzio at Tullia's house, and he 
goes on to relate that when certain gentlemen declared 
that the Istrian poet, being a foreigner, was unable 
to write properly in the Florentine idiom, the indignant 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 229 

Muzio immediately wrote a fresh sonnet to TuUia, in 
which, fully conscious of his own merit, he scorned his 
jealous critics and justly reminded them that poets are 
not made only by 

"... Tuscan streams, 
But by heaven, by art, by study, and holy love." 

In the passage from VErcolano already referred to, 
Varchi speaks of Muzio as " a man not only learned 
and eloquent, but also loyal," whence it may be justly 
mferred that he did not fear him as a rival in love, 
since he distinguished him by praise thus worded. 

It is a fact that both the tongues that wagged 
so industriously against their neighbours, and also 
certain sonnets still in manuscript, which rail against 
Varchi because of his relations with Tullia, are both 
silent on the subject of her intrigue with Mannelli, 
of which they could so easily have made use for 
the purpose of ridiculing the solemn academician. In 
a note to one of these abusive sonnets, Tullia is spoken 
of as the "Courtesan of the Academicians," and 
it hints further that she was bringing up her sister 
Penelope and other .girls as she herself had been 
brought up by Giulia. In other passages it is asserted 
that TuUia's sonnets were really written by Varchi, but 
this is contradicted by his usual venomous enemy, 
Alfonso de' Pazzi, At last Varchi grew tired of these 
constant murmurings and accusations, and one fine 
day he shook the dust of the city off his feet and 
departed from Florence, postponing until a more 



230 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

convenient time the continuation of his idyll with 
Tullia, and leaving her to the mercy of the countless 
suitors who filled the city with the sound of her 
name. 

Side by side with more favourable reports, however, 
base and malicious accusations easily obtained credence ; 
evil-speaking and calumny were rife in those days, 
and the life Tullia had led in various parts of Italy 
was not such as to place her beyond the reach of 
Florentine malice. The outward veil of respectability 
with which the hetaera covers herself is blown aside 
by the lightest wind, be the wearer literary or not ; 
there were many who suspected that the poet's crown 
of laurel which Tullia wore was nothing but a fraud, 
and that the poems circulating under her name were 
really written by literary admirers in payment for 
favours accorded to their true authors. Not all the 
airs she gave herself as poetess and virtuosa^ neither 
her court of adorers nor Varchi's protection sufficed 
to make Florence, the sceptical Florence who did not 
accept even her own great men unquestioningly, forget 
who Tullia of Arragon really was, or by what manner 
of mother she had been borne and brought up. 

Lasca, in one of his satirical poems, mentions 
Tullia's name in connection with several others of 
her profession, but the Roman hetaera would assuredly 
not have cared to find herself classed with Nannina 
and Fioretta and Totta ; with her poetical fame she 
considered herself far above these, and no longer to 
be looked upon as a courtesan. So without either 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 231 

dread or suspicion, on October 19, 1546, she heard 
one of the usual laws promulgated by Duke Cosimo 
concerning the ornaments and clothing of men and women^ 
by which law the Nanninas and Fiorettas of Florence 
were forbidden to wear " garments of cloth or silk 
of any description whatsoever," and were obliged to 
wear a " veil, napkin, handkerchief or other covering 
upon their heads, which should have a border of gold, 
silk, or other yellow material a finger's breadth wide, 
and so placed that it is visible unto all." The worship- 
ful Eight of the Balia, the Keepers of the Law, and 
the Officers of Honesty were to see that the law was 
carried out, and to decide who amongst the many 
Florentine women of doubtful character were to be 
condemned to wear the shameful sign upon their 
heads. 

Months passed, and, mindful of her efforts on 
behalf of Siena, TuUia never thought of the dangers 
which might suddenly confront her from the jealousy 
of her rivals or the enemies of her protectors, now 
that she no longer possessed a husband behind whom 
she could take refuge. The storm broke one evil 
day in April, 1547, when she was summoned before 
the magistrate and invited to comply with the law. 
The blow was all the greater because it was unforeseen. 
In despair, TuUia applied for help to Don Pedro of 
Toledo, nephew of the Duchess Eleonora, and the 
young man, who had always been kindly disposed 
towards her, advised her to appeal to the Duchess 
for mercy, presenting at the same time the many 



232 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

sonnets which had been written for her by the most 
illustrious persons, " as though to show that it was a 
real mistake." But the petition must be carefully 
and cleverly composed in order to show the literary 
powers of the petitioner, who, in her dilemma, be- 
thought herself of invoking Varchi's assistance with 
the fateful letter : — 

"Most honoured Master, — It is the opinion 
of Don Pedro that I should present the sonnets to 
the Duchess as speedily as possible, and with them a 
petition praying Her Excellency that, together with 
the Lord Duke, she would vouchsafe me such grace 
that at least I need not be compelled to wear the 
yellow mark ; and that I should briefly relate how 
I do live most retired, and that if I do not obtain 
this grace from their Excellencies I shall be forced 
to leave Florence. Now in my great need I know 
not to whom I can better turn for help than to your 
lordship, because I have chosen you for my protector 
and guide in all important things, led thereto by your 
perfect judgment, your reasonable wisdom, your true 
goodness and the firm faith which I have in the 
kindness of your heart. Therefore, if ever your 
lordship did willingly take any trouble for me, if ever 
you did think to please and benefit me, I pray you 
now help and succour me with your knowledge in 
setting forth this petition, which will be no more 
difficult for your lordship than is a familiar conversa- 
tion, and will be doing unto me the greatest kindness 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 233 

that I could hope or desire ; and seeing that I am 
already obliged unto you, I pray that you will do 
this of your goodness and because of the faith which 
I have in you. And the sooner you do it, the greater 
will be the benefit I shall derive therefrom. I remain 
your servant and I kiss your hands. Your lordship 
must let me know what I shall reply unto Don Pedro. 
" Your lordship's servant, 

"TULLIA OF ArRAGON." 

Humiliated by her hard fate, the poor woman made 
no attempt either to resist the law or to rebel against 
the magistrates, as she had done at Siena when she had 
the protection of her husband's name ; neither did she 
indignantly quit the inhospitable city, but, weary and 
humbled, she bowed her head and begged for mercy 
and grace. She scarcely had the courage to look her 
Damon in the face, her lover of yesterday, who wrote 
her the tenderest letters, and she appealed to him 
as she would have appealed to a master, without any 
excuse or pretence whatever, without even referring to 
their past intimacy. She asks him to help her out of 
the goodness of his heart, and because she has always 
trusted him. And she does not even ask to be entirely 
exempt from the law's restrictions, but only that 
she should not be forced to wear the yellow mark, 
showing herself willing to forego dresses of cloth and 
silk, as the law demands, and promising to ride no 
more in carriages or to adorn herself with garments 
sacred to gentlewomen and respectable characters. 



234 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The courtesan's star was on the wane, and perhaps 
she was beginning to feel the weariness which heralds 
the sad moment when even the most beautiful woman 
must realise that the face which confronts her in the 
mirror shows the marks of advancing age, when 
the first white hairs shine upon her brow and the 
wrinkles round her eyes bid her abandon her last hope. 
Henceforth Tullia gave up all ejffort and let herself 
float with the stream ; she felt that the river of her 
life was nearing its mouth, and would presently flow 
out into that great Dead Sea wherein even the most 
turbulent streams stagnate. 

The courtesan is superstitious and a fatalist by 
nature, like some empress-adventuress, and at the first 
defeat, the first reverse of fortune, she loses her 
courage and gives up the game. In the presence 
of the magistrates Tullia had suddenly forgotten all 
her former pride as off*spring of a royal house, and had 
shown none of the haughty grandeur she had displayed 
at Ferrara. Fugaces labuntur anni ! 

Varchi found it impossible to resist such earnest 
pleading, and in all probability he himself wrote 
the following petition which Don Pedro of Toledo 
handed to the Duchess : — 

" To THE Most Illustrious and Most Excellent 
Lady Duchess : 

" Tullia of Arragon, your Excellency's most 
humble servant, having taken refuge in Florence from 
the last tumult in Siena, and not comporting herself 




Photo-] 



ELEONORA DI TOLEDO. UY liKONZIXO. 



[Alinari. 
[To face paiic 234. 



(- 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 235 

as do the other women, hardly indeed ever leaving her 
chamber, not to speak of her house, by reason of 
sickness both of mind and body, doth pray Your 
Excellency, in order' that she may not be obliged to 
depart, to move His Illustrious Excellency the Duke 
your Consort that he will grant her the favour that, 
even if she may no longer wear the few garments which 
have remained unto her use, as she doth petition in her 
writing, that she may at least be exempt from wearing 
the yellow veil. And adding this unto the other many 
and great obligations for which she is indebted unto 
Your Excellency, she will pray God that He will keep 
you ever in health and happiness." 

The petition was granted, thanks to the Duchess, 
who persuaded the Duke to endorse it with his own 
hand in the words, " Fasseli gratia •per poetessa^'' which 
may be seen upon the original document, still preserved 
in the State Archives of Florence and vouched for as 
authentic by the signature of Lelio Torelli, Minister to 
the Grand Duke. Torelli then forwarded to Tullia 
a document drawn up in accordance with Cosimo's 
orders by the Lieutenants and Counsellors of His 
Excellency the Duke of Florence, wherein it was 
stated with all due formality that in recognition of her 
rare gifts of poetry and philosophy and the talents 
which raised her above the other women, Tullia of 
Arragon was granted the special privilege of exemption 
from all restrictions relating to dress and behaviour 
ordered by the law passed on the 19th of October, 



236 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

1546; and that being, therefore, set free from all 
observance of the above-mentioned law, the Signora 
Tullia of Arragon was henceforth at liberty to wear 
what garments and ornaments she pleased, and was 
in no way obliged to comply with any of the 
provisions of this same law. 

Tullia had conquered, but it had been a victory 
for Pyrrhus, for she had been obliged to confess 
herself a courtesan, albeit different from the others 
of her class. What would the admirers, scholars, and 
poets of former days have said to this revelation } 
In order to cover the shame she had , suffered, it 
was more than ever necessary that she bring her 
literary talents into notice, that she should publish the 
proofs of the honour paid her by the most distinguished 
writers, and the songs in praise of her virtue with which 
the most famous poets had rewarded her kindness. 
Moreover, it was absolutely necessary for her to obtain 
the favour of the Duchess of Florence and to win her 
goodwili for the future, and to find some way in which 
the name of the courtesan might appear side by side 
with that of her protectress. So she bethought herself 
of writing two sonnets, one on the death of the little 
prince, Don Pietro, which occurred on the loth of 
June, 1542, and the other on the birth of Don Garzia 
on the 5th of July, 1547, and of having them 
published, together with the other things she had 
either written or received, with a grateful dedicatory 
preface addressed to the Duchess. As usual, she 
appealed to Varchi for assistance, and in a letter 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 237 

written in July or August of 1 547, she endeavoured to 
rouse him from his attitude of indifference towards her. 

" Most honoured Master," she began, " I know 
that your lordship has entirely forgotten me, to my 
great sorrow, and I cannot imagine the reason. I have 
the comfort of knowing, however, that the cause or 
your forge tfuln ess was not born of me. I am aware 
that I should, therefore, flee all chance of causing you 
annoyance, but I cannot do it ; and now I am forced 
again to trouble your lordship." 

Then she goes on to beg his help in writing the 
letter to the Grand Duchess and asks him also to send 
her the sonnets, ending her appeal with the usual 
thanks and vows of eternal service and gratitude. 
Again Varchi complied with her wishes ; he corrected 
the sonnets, and probably himself wrote the dedication 
which prefaced the volume, issued in that same year by 
Gabriel Giohto de Ferrari of Venice, to whom, on 
his departure from Florence in the autumn of 1547, 
Girolamo Muzio carried the Dialogo delV Infinita 
d' Amore to be printed with a dedication to Cosimo. 

After the kindness shown her by the Grand Duchess, 
Tullia endeavoured to attach herself to the court 
of the Medici and to win its favour with dedicatory 
sonnets and verses. She felt wretched and forsaken, and 
sought for new help and protection, hoping, perhaps, to 
find amongst the courtiers and soldiers some friend who 
would prove more reliable, if harder to please, than 
the scholars and writers who had hitherto been her 
recognised followers. When in 1548 Giovambattista 



238 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Savello succeeded Stefano Colonna as head of the Ducal 
troops, Tullia tried to attract his attention with verses, 
and, according to her custom, sent her effusions first 
to Varchi for correction. Messer Benedetto, accus- 
tomed by now to her infidelities both of heart and pen, 
could not refuse a prayer expressed as follows : — 

*'Dear Master, — For a long time now have I 
been the servant of the most illustrious lord, Giambat- 
tista Savello, who is here as general in the service 
of His Excellency, and methinks I have failed in my 
duty in not having already shown how constantly 
I do think of His Excellency, especially as he thinks of 
me every day and holds converse with me. Wherefore 
have I set down in some fourteen lines that which 
I desire should be put into a sonnet, and which 
is according unto my desires if not unto his infinite 
merit. And seeing that I am not sufficiently well able 
to do it myself, I do pray your lordship that so 
far as my prayers may avail with you and your 
courtesy, and by the faith which I have in your good- 
ness, that ye will do me the favour of so altering 
that which I dare to send unto you that I shall not 
need to blush for it. And I pray you also to tear 
in pieces that which I have roughly written down 
and upon which I have bestowed no care, in order 
that it may be altogether the work of your lordship." 

The letter ends in the usual way — thanks, excuses, 
promises. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 239 

The good-natured Varchi corrected and copied 
as he was bidden, content to fill the office of secretary 
since it enabled him, at least, to know who were 
the new saints of the Tullian calendar. He could 
refuse nothing to her who had never refused him 
anything, and he seems to have obeyed her commands 
even to the point of destroying the rough copy 
of her sonnet to Savello, seeing that it has not been 
found amongst the letters. From being a lover he 
had passed to the position of confidant, and with 
him Tullia made no secret of her sudden fancies for 
one new-comer after another. 

One evening towards the autumn of 1548, Tullia 
received a visit from the scoundrel Giordano Orsini, 
afterwards all too notorious as the husband of Cosimo's 
daughter Isabella. She immediately became enthu- 
siastic about him, and the next morning set to work 
to compose a sonnet in praise of this delightful person, 
sending it, as usual, to Varchi for revision, accompanied 
by a letter in which she showed that she had not 
forgotten the arts of flattery and deception which were 
her most valued weapons. '* Since Fortune did not 
permit me to know the valour, courtesy and goodness 
of Signor Giordano until last night," wrote Tullia 
to Varchi, " it was not until this morning that I was 
able to take up my pen and endeavour, by means 
of it, to show unto his lordship that I do know a part 
of his worthiness and desire to sing of it, albeit 
in discordant notes. Only at this moment have I 
given birth to the sonnet which I do send you here- 



240 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

with. . . . And but that your infinite goodness is well 
known unto me, and that I do judge your heart according 
unto mine own, which would never weary of serving 
you if it had the power so to do, I should be ashamed 
of having troubled you so often. . . . And I pray your 
lordship to remember that the time draws near when 
my body must leave you, and that I desire to behold 
you again with the eyes of my body as I constantly do 
with the eyes of my mind." 

The most important thing about this letter is that 
it contained the rough copy of the sonnet written out 
by Tullia herself, so that we have indubitable proot 
of what she was capable in poetry when left to herself 
and before her master's pen had corrected her efforts 
and given them the perfection they lacked. And, 
to tell the truth, those fourteen lines she had thrown 
off in such haste were very far from being perfect, and 
it is easy to understand why Tullia urged Varchi, in 
another letter, to destroy the rough copy she forwarded 
to him for his approval. It is to be regretted that Varchi's 
amended version has not been preserved together with 
Tullia's original draft, for it would be interesting 
to see how he worked the miracle of giving sense and 
form to her halting and impossible periods ! This 
affords some ground for the accusation in the Zibaldone^ 
of the Etruscan Academician^ namely, that Tullia's 
sonnets were all written by Varchi, and it would 
also explain why she made such exertions to win him 
for her friend and lover, and, when their love had 
cooled, to keep him as her faithful adviser and co- 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 241 

operator. She had done exactly the same thing with 
Muzio ; the Dialogo deW Infinita d'Amore had been 
printed through his efforts, just as Varchi had helped 
her with the publication of her Rime. 

But the charming idyll of Phyllis and Damon was 
now played out. After spending nearly three years 
in Florence, Tullia, as she had already announced, 
found herself obliged to leave that city. Before she 
went she wrote Varchi a farewell letter — a melancholy, 
almost romantic sort of epistle — in which she spoke 
of the future life, of her eternal gratitude for the 
numberless kindnesses he had shown her, and informed 
him that she was sending him a pair of doves, two 
bottles for water and one of malmsey wine, and an 
alabaster salt-cellar, the usual gifts which were supposed 
to preserve good friendship. " I cannot tell your 
lordship," she wrote, "how strange it seems unto me 
to be leaving you, with my body, that is to say ; but 
if I did speak the truth it would scarcely be believed, 
and my words would perchance be considered only 
as expressions of ceremony. But I will not speak 
of my grief, and will only pray your lordship with 
all the affection of mine heart that ye will not entirely 
forget me, and that every time that I do send you 
something of mine ye will deign to correct and 
ornament it, according unto your customary goodness, 
as my master and mine own possession. And this, 
above all things, your lordship must believe that 
ye may command my service whensoever ye have need 
of me and wheresoever I may be ; for in my need I 

16 



242 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

did ever have recourse unto your goodness and loving- 
kindness. My mother and Penelope do commend 
themselves unto you and remain for ever your servants. 
And I myself likewise. I do purpose to depart upon 
the fifteenth of this month without fail, if so God 
will. 

" Written from my house, the loth of October, 
1548. 

*' Your lordship's 

TULLIA OF ArRAGON." 



VIII 



"^^HEN, in the melancholy autumn days of 1548, 
Tullia quitted Florence, Varchi, and that literary 
republic with whom she had found such favour, she 
felt that her career as a poetess had closed for ever. 
Apparently Fortune would never smile upon her again ; 
gone was the time of glorious love and famous con- 
quests, her triumphs both as beauty and as poetess 
were things of the past. It would seem from the 
preface to the Guerrin Meschino, which was written 
during the last days of her sojourn in Florence, that 
her thoughts were turning to God, " from whom alone 
Cometh all good," and that she was experiencing that 
indescribable weariness which brings disgust with the 
things of this world. Now that the storms which 
had theatened her in Florence had passed away, she 
had hoped to be able to carry out her last idea, and by 
doing good works and leading an austere life to make 
people forget those past misdeeds of which " necessity 
had been the cause." 

But Fate would not grant her even this last desire, 

243 



244 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

and on the 15th of October of this same year she 
quitted Florence with her mother and sister, to resume 
the wandering life from which she had rested for 
a brief space. Perhaps, as Bongi surmises, the actual 
earnings of that sort of Florentine Academy did 
not suffice for the needs of the household ; perhaps 
Giulia meditated bringing out Penelope, who already 
promised to surpass her sister both in mental and 
physical gifts, on that vast and wealthy Roman stage 
whereon Tullia herself had obtained her earliest 
triumphs. Who knows ? It may even be that Tullia, 
though at the same time thanking the Lord for having 
turned her heart to Himself while she was still com- 
paratively young and attractive, did not feel so perfectly 
repentant but that she regretted sacrificing to God 
that which might still be desired by men. Perhaps 
it was her mother who persuaded her to postpone 
for a little while her conversion and penitence until the 
family had made better provision for its needs. Truly, 
it would have been a sin not to have profited by 
the gifts which heaven had so amply bestowed, and 
failing Tullia, the chief support of the family, the 
mother would of necessity have been compelled to 
sacrifice Penelope. We should prefer to think that 
love for the young sister, and the desire to save her 
from the ignominy she herself had suffered, induced the 
courtesan-poetess to return to that path of vice which 
adverse destiny had marked out for her almost from 
her very birth. 

To return to Rome after the lapse of so many years, 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 245 

the fighting of so many battles, the enduring of so 
much suffering and the strain of so many adventures ; 
to exhibit herself to the Roman public less youthful 
and less fair than when she left, to find herself face 
to face once more with her former rivals, exposed to 
the malicious tongues of the younger and the jealous 
hatred of the elder ones, now when she was no longer 
possessed of all the charms and irresistible witchery 
of other days, must have seemed to TuUia one of those 
sacrifices which earn for the victim the right to enter 
Paradise without delay. The Rome to which she 
returned was the Rome of Paul III., the Pope who 
had restored the Inquisition and was energetically 
persecuting all heretical depravity whilst awaiting 
the era of a regenerate and more moderate Catholicism ; 
and it was a very different city from that of Clement 
VII., where priests and laity and officials alike had 
led the most unfettered of lives, and the throne of 
St. Peter had shone with the utmost splendour of a 
pagan Renaissance. The reign of the hetaerae was 
over ; they must submit to be registered as mere 
courtesans, and the gay life 'twixt love and beauty, 
feasting and poetry was now a forgotten art. 

From the book of the Tassa delle Cortigiane we learn 
that, in 1549, TuUia was living in Campo Marzo, in 
a fine house near the Palazzo Carpi ; and here, on 
the 1st of February of that same year, died the young 
Penelope, and was buried in the church of Sant' Agos- 
tino " beneath a marble tomb, erected to the memory 
of her beauty and intelligence," 



246 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Argia had found peace and safety in the grave, 
to which she was soon followed by her mother Jole^ 
and later by 'Tyrrhenia herself. Thus, through death 
or neglect, the poor hetaer^e lost one after another 
all those she held most dear on earth. 



IX 



OEVEN years later, on March 2, 1556, Messer 
^^ Virgilio Grandinelli, accompanied by the necessary 
witnesses, made his way to the quarter of the Traste- 
vere and entered the lodging-house kept by Matteo 
Moretti of Parma ; here, in a room of this humble 
dwelling, tended by the host's wife Lucrezia and her 
servant Cristofora, Tullia of Arragon lay upon a 
bed of sickness from which she was never to rise 
again. 

Maestro Panunzio, the physician, had given up all 
hope of saving her, and had advised her to set her 
worldly affairs in order whilst she was still in possession 
of all her senses. Wrapped in a garment of black 
wool, her hair twisted round her head, with pallid 
face, and great, wide-open eyes that seemed to be 
looking into space, the courtesan showed all the signs 
of a cruel disease. Of her once famous beauty no 
trace remained, save, perhaps, the brightness of her 
eyes, the wasted oval of her face and the waxen white- 
ness of her hands. Instead of the strings of pearls 
painted by Bonvicino in his portrait of her, her hair 
now bore only streaks of silver, and instead of the 

bright colouring immortalised by the Venetian's brush, 

247 



248 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

her face now showed only the pallor of approaching 
death. The black-robed figure motionless upon her 
pillows was but the shadow of the beauty of other 
days, who surely never foresaw midst all her worldly 
triumphs that in her last hour she would be alone 
in that poor room, abandoned to the care of hirelings, 
and that not one of all the poets and scholars who 
fawned on her and praised her in her days of prosperity 
would trouble themselves about her even so far as 
to write the epitaph for her tomb. 

Host Matteo had introduced the notary and his 
witnesses into the sick room. Lucrezia and Cristofora 
were weeping in a corner, whilst Tullia, collecting 
all her remaining strength, dictated her last will to 
Messer Virgilio Grandinelli. 

" Firstly, I do commend my soul unto the Most 
High God and unto His glorious Mother, the Virgin 
Mary, and unto all the Court of Heaven. 

"To Lucrezia my servant, wife of Matteo my host, 
I leave the furniture of this chamber ; that is to 
say, the green chairs and the bed whereon I do now 
lie ; also a dress of black wool, already worn, and open- 
ing in front. I leave unto her a new scarlet habit, that 
is to say, a petticoat, a piece of white cloth with purple 
stripes and one with yellow stripes, and a dress after 
the Roman fashion, of striped cloth, and a veil. I also 
leave her ten golden scudi^ and she shall be paid 
for the wine which 1 had of her. The girl Cristofora, 
my servant, shall have a dress of ordinary black cloth, 
and ten golden scudi. 



TULLIA OF ARRAGON 249 

"To the poor orphans I leave five golden scudi. To 
the Company of the Crucified, I leave a plain vestment 
of black taffetta. To the church of Sant' Agostino, 
I leave half a scudo' worth of wax lights yearly, to 
be burned before my tomb upon the Feast of All Souls ; 
and if the friars do not burn it, my heirs shall not 
be obliged to give it again. I leave half a scudo 
in order that every year the mass of San Gregorio may 
be said for the repose of my soul. Unto Maestro 
Panunzio, my physician, I leave a physician's dress 
of black wool, which shall be made newly for him." 

Here there was a long pause ; the voice of the dying 
woman was almost spent ; she made a sign for the 
notary to draw nearer to her, and with difficulty gave 
utterance to her closing words. 

It was, perhaps, from a last feeling of shame that these 
final, directions were whispered, above all the recom- 
mendation to the notary not to forget the obligatory 
legacy from all courtesans in favour of the Convertite 
nuns, as ordered by the bull of Pope Clement VII. As 
universal legatee she named the youth Clelio, now 
" under the guardianship of Messer Pietro Chiocca, 
carver to the Cardinal Cornaro," with the condition 
that he could not touch the capital until he attained the 
age of twenty-five years, and that the interest should 
be employed for his support and education. If CleHo 
should die before reaching the age of twenty-five, 
Chiocca was to fall heir to the interest of the money, 
and on his death the whole sum was to be distributed 
amongst various charities. 



250 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Tullia further directed that she was to be buried 
in Sant' Agostino in her mother's grave, " At my 
funeral," she added, " I desire that none should attend 
save the friars of Sant' Agostino and the Company 
of the Crucified, to which I belong, and I desire 
to be interred at sunset, simply, and without any 
ceremony." As her executors she named Monsignore 
Antonio Trivulzio, Bishop of Toulon, and Messer 
Mario Frangipane. 

When she had finished speaking, the notary handed 
her the pen, and with trembling hand she signed 
her name at the foot of the document, ./, Tullia of 
Arragon^ with mine own hand. Then it was tied 
and a seal placed upon the cord, and in the presence of 
the witnesses it was given into the charge of Messer 
Virgilio Grandinelli, who was to open it again only 
after her death. 

And then, having thus fulfilled the final duty of her 
life, and having dismissed the strangers and the women, 
poor Tullia was left to spend alone her last hours 
in that world which had given her no abiding consola- 
tion, wherein she had not even known a mother's love, 
and which she was forced to quit without even having 
first embraced her son Clelio. 

A few days later, probably on the 14th of March, 
a simple bier was borne into the church of Sant' 
Agostino at the hour of sunset and placed in front of a 
tomb near the high altar. And here, reunited, mother 
and daughters were at last granted that peace which 
in all their wretched lives they had never known. 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 

'' I "HE 17th of September, 18 14, was not a Saturday 
-'' like any other in Florence. Since the dawn 
the whole town had been in motion, and behind the 
narrow openings covered with oiled linen that lighted 
the lowly dwellings of the poor, as well as the diamond- 
shaped glass panes with their leaden frames which 
adorned the palaces of the rich, the ever-curious 
Florentines were gazing down into the streets swarm- 
ing with people ; with peasants in short hose, with 
townspeople in their best clothes, with police, with 
priests dressed according to the careless French fashion 
in all sorts of colours, and with soldiers, both Tuscan 
and Austrian, who, to the sound of fife and drum, were 
marching from the guard house at the Palazzo Vecchio, 
and from their barracks, towards the Duomo and Porta 
S. Gallo. Many were the horsemen, very many the 
carriages ; private carriages these, with lackeys on the 
box or standing up behind, moving slowly owing 
to the pressure of the crowd, being large, heavy 
and massive chariots, bearing, in a sort of pomp, ladies 

and cavaliers arrayed in the splendid dresses of cere- 

253 



254 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

mony which the restoration had inherited from the 
Empire. 

By seven o'clock the soldiers were already posted 
along the streets and inside the Duomo ; the tramp 
of feet and the rolling sea of heads proceeded towards 
Porta S. Gallo, and then, passing the triumphal arch, 
went on to Ponte Rosso and extended far as the eye 
could reach along the Bologna road. Between the files 
of soldiers went a long line of couriers on horseback, 
outriders, grand carriages with court officials, chamber- 
lains, magistrates, civic functionaries. At eight, the 
sound of the first gun from the fort of Belvedere and 
the ringing of the bells of all the churches announced 
to the faithful Tuscans that his Imperial and Royal 
Highness the Archduke Ferdinand IIL, Grand Duke 
of Tuscany, starting from Villa Capponi, in the suburb 
called La Pietra^ where he had made a brief halt to 
rest and change his travelling dress, was about to make 
his entry into Florence. Received by his new Grand 
Chamberlain, Cavaliere Amerigo Antinori, and by the 
two chamberlains on duty that week, Tommaso Corsi 
and Silvestro Aldobrandini, the Grand Duke, whose 
journey from Firenzuola had been one prolonged 
triumph, after having put on his full uniform, took his 
place in his chariot with his six horses arrayed in their 
finest harness, in company with the major domo. 
Major Don Giuseppe Rospigliosi, and the Grand 
Chamberlain, Cavaliere Amerigo Antinori. 

The grand coach was followed by another drawn by 
six horses, in which sat the two chamberlains for the 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 255 

week, Corsi and Aldobrandini, together with the two 
chamberlains, Bodeck and Reineck, whom the Grand 
Duke had brought with him from Wurzburg. 
Around the equipage of the sovereign galloped, proud 
of their fine swords and their plumed helmets, twelve 
officers of the new corps of dragoons, while the major 
in command of them rode beside the door of the 
carriage. Along the road, amid the clamour of bells, 
the roar of the cannon, the shouts of the people 
and the orders of the officers to present arms, down the 
slope of the Pellegrino, in the middle of a cloud 
of dust, escorted by the dragoons and all shining 
and glittering in the sun, advanced the carriage of the 
prince. The shouts of Evvivay the clapping of hands, 
the cries, growing ever more enthusiastic, of the crowd, 
increased with their increasing numbers. 

When the sovereign reached Porta S. Gallo, the 
former senator, now Gonfaloniere of the Commune 
of Florence, Girolamo Bartolommei, the priors of the 
guilds and the civic magistrates, going forth to meet 
the Grand Duke, presented him with the keys of the 
city. At this point the Gonfaloniere wished to speak 
an address, already prepared, but the emotion felt 
both by the worthy man himself and by the sovereign 
made them incapable of articulate speech, and only the 
tears of the priors and the Gonfaloniere expressed 
the depth of the homage which, in the name of the city, 
they rendered to their beloved prince. 

The scene might have a comic side, as suggesting 
other entrances, when the official addresses were not 



256 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

interrupted by tears, but by yawns or half-hidden 
sneers ; but we may be certain that these tears, shed 
by the Florentine magistrates, were honest and sprang 
from the heart, and that the reception given to 
Ferdinand IlL in Florence and throughout Tuscany, 
when he once more set foot there after fifteen years 
of exile, was spontaneous and sincere. 

The entry of the Grand Duke resembled a triumph, 
as his return to the dominions of which he had been 
deprived by the French invasion seemed the work 
of retributive justice. The good people of Florence 
had seen him leave his palace in that city on a sad 
morning in March, 1799, and had accompanied him 
to the gates, with many tears. Ferdinand had taken 
the road to Vienna, resigned and confident, advising 
his subjects to remain quiet and to trust in Provi- 
dence. Now, after so many changes, after so many 
shocks and defeats, he returned as a father comes 
back among his children, with a conscience void of 
offence, sure of deserving and possessing the affection 
of his people. 

The entry into the city was effected with great 
pomp. On the Piazza San Marco, converted into 
an amphitheatre, appeared a triumphal group, 
representing Victory, Concord, Justice and Peace 
drawing a car on which was seated the effigy of 
Ferdinand IIL The most illustrious artists of the 
Academy had worked upon this group and its archi- 
tectural surroundings ; Morrocchesi, Pietro Bagnoli, 
Francesco Benedetti, and the pupils of the Eugenian 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 257 

College had celebrated in song the return of the best 
and most desired of princes. From Porta S. Gallo 
to the Duomo, where the benediction was given, from 
the Duomo to the Pitti Palace, and in the evening 
in the Cascine and in the streets of Florence, all 
through the next day, and on those when the holidays 
granted by the Commune were celebrated with chariot 
races in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, with illumi- 
nations and fireworks, the cries of Evviva, the applause 
and shouts of joy had no end. The Hereditary 
Prince, afterwards Leopold II., the Archduchesses 
Maria Theresa and Louisa were also received with 
enthusiastic greetings on their arrival, which took place 
after that of the Grand Duke. The songs of the 
poets voiced the sentiments of the people : 

" We see thy virtues mirrored in thy son ; 
It is enough, if he resemble thee. 
Thee did Etruria long for, and hath won. 
Wider and prouder other States may be ; 
None a more loving, faithful people know : 
Greatest of Monarchs, he who reigneth so." 

***** 

The return of Ferdinand III. closed for Florence 
a period full of revolution, tumult and terror. In 
those fifteen years what shocks had they endured, what 
commotions ; how many triumphal entries, how many 
terror-stricken and precipitous flights ! In 1799, 
General Gaultier drove out the Grand Duke, planted 
the tree of liberty on the Piazzas of Santa Maria 
Novella and Santa Croce, arrested, at Certosa, poor 

17 



258 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

old Pope Pius VL and sent him off to die of grief, 
a prisoner in France, robbed the galleries and the 
Pitti Palace of all their masterpieces, and, a few months 
later, July 5, 1799, quitted Florence with his soldiers. 
The Austrians returned and restored the government 
of Ferdinand IIL, while the mob and the peasants 
robbed and insulted those who had been partisans 
of the French. But then came the brilliant victories 
of Bonaparte, and, after Marengo, the Austrians 
decamped in their turn ; and on October 15, 1800, 
Florence saw the entry of General Dupont, and then 
that of Miollis, the friend of Gorilla Olimpica ; and 
on March 27, 1801, that of Joachim Murat, who in 
the name of his brother-in-law Bonaparte, took pos- 
session of Tuscany. On the 12th of August there was 
another triumphal entry, but this time of a king. By 
the Treaty of Madrid, Tuscany was transformed into 
the kingdom of Etruria, and Ludovico di Borbone, 
already Duke of Parma, came to take possession of 
it. A short and inglorious reign. On May 29, 1803, 
Ludovico died and was succeeded by the infant, Carlo 
Ludovico, his son, with the title of Second King 
of Etruria; and he, on December 10, 1807, left Flor- 
ence, with his mother Maria Luisa, to take possession 
of another kingdom, that of Lusitania, conferred upon 
him by the Emperor Napoleon, in whose name General 
Reille occupied Florence. On May 24, 1808, Tuscany 
was divided into the three Departments of the Arno, 
the Mediterranean, and the Ombrone, was united to 
the Empire and governed by a Giunta di governor 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 259 

or council of regency, presided over by Baron Menou, 
general of the French troops. Less than a year later, 
on March 3, 1809, the three Departments were trans- 
formed into a Grand-duchy with which was invested 
Elisa, sister of the Emperor, wife of Felice Baciocchi, 
Princess of Piombino and Duchess of Lucca. On the 
1st of April, Elisa made her entry into Florence. The 
city retained two agreeable memories of her reign, 
the military reviews which she used to command on 
horseback, followed by her husband Felice, and the oil 
lamps put up at the expense of the commune in 
the streets of the city, after 1809. But scarcely five 
years had elapsed when, on February i, 18 14, she 
m her turn fled from Florence to Lucca, whither she 
had already despatched the princess, her daughter, and 
(by night) several large carts loaded with plate and 
other objects of value. This year (i 8 14) was, in truth, 
an eventful one for Florence, full of strange surprises. 
The French troops had nearly all left Florence, some 
time before Madame Elisa did, and the Neapolitan 
troops came in, headed by the Marshal Minutolo, 
who in the name of Murat, or rather of Joachim- 
Napoleon, King of the Two Sicilies, took possession 
of the city. To Minutolo followed Lieutenant- 
General Lechi, comandante superiore of Tuscany, 
who after a siege of more than twenty days succeeded 
in bringing about the evacuation of the Fortezza 
da Basso and of Belvedere by the French troops 
who had still remained there. Later, when Tuscany 
was entirely occupied by Neapolitan troops, the 



26o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

reinstatement of Ferdinand II L was established by 
the " Act of Parma," Murat having been compelled by 
the Convention of Schiarino Rizzino to confine himself 
to the kingdom of Naples. On the 26th of April 
there arrived in Florence the Duke of Rocca Romana, 
Commissioner for His Majesty the King of Naples, 
for the consignment of Tuscany to the Commissioner- 
General of the Grand Duke Ferdinand, in whose 
name, on May i, 18 14, Don Giuseppe Rospigliosi, 
as Minister Plenipotentiary, took possession of it. 
Ten changes of government in fifteen years, of which 
hardly a trace is left in the writings of the time ! The 
only political periodical then published in Florence 
changed its title three times during a single week, in 
February, 18 14. It was Journal of the Department 
of the Arno until the 3rd, on the 5th it was The 
Political Journal of Florence^ and on the loth The 
Gazette of Florence. But though it changed its title 
it did not change its proprietor, and continued to 
be printed by Giuseppe Fantosini at Santa Maria 
in Campo. Governments might change, but the only 
men of character, printers, of that day, changed not 
at ail. 

* * * * * 

The Restoration meant, for the Tuscans, prosperity, 
peace and quiet. Of the French and Neapolitan 
governments, they retained the memory only of the 
Vandalic spoliation of their galleries and museums, 
of the forced taxes, and of the promising young men 
who were sent away to die far from home, whilst 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 261 

certain beneficent legislative reforms were forgotten. 
But they had other grievances ; the continued and 
intolerable pressure of taxation, the persecution of 
priests and of person^ in religion, the Frenchifying of 
all public business, the obligation of renouncing their 
native tongue, and the oppression of an absent lord. 
The Tuscans, by natural disposition, language and 
ancient tradition, have always felt themselves to be, 
above all things, Tuscan^ and in no wise disposed 
to herd with other peoples and to lose themselves 
in the confusion caused by a mixture of races, among 
whom they ran the risk, I know not whether from 
shyness or timidity, of feeling themselves somewhat 
overpowered. The Neapolitan or Murattian fusion 
was not to their taste, particularly as they were quicker 
to perceive its defects than its advantages. As to 
reforms, they remembered those initiated by Peter 
Leopold, and left as an heritage to Ferdinand ; they 
remembered the old prosperous days of plenteous 
crops untrodden by foreign troops, undevastated by 
greedy tax-gatherers ; they remembered their prince, 
who dwelt among his subjects, a good, simple, easy- 
going, affectionate master. They loved the patience, 
even the severity of his paternal rule, even his im- 
periousness, for the father's castigation is no insult, but 
a proof of thoughtful care. In these later days, loose- 
ness of life had become outrageous and disgusting, 
especially in those who had, to use the proverbial 
expression, flung their cassocks among the nettles, 
and all these motives caused them strongly to desire a 



262 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

return to the old state of things. And most especially 
was it desired and prayed for by the nobles, who 
under the Napoleonic Code, had found themselves, 
in exchange for divorce, of which they had never 
felt the want, deprived of their ancient privileges for 
the benefit of younger favourites of fortune. The 
abolition of the religious orders and the absorption 
of their property by the State had given a shock 
to the idea of property ; the want of strong arms taken 
off the fields by conscription was injurious to agri- 
culture. The Napoleonic wars, fought in far-distant 
lands to further the ambition of one man, had cost 
too much good Tuscan blood, and left in too many 
families a void not easily forgotten. 

Ferdinand IIL, taught wisdom by events, had 
returned to Tuscany from exile more desirous of 
peace than of power, resolved to follow the dictates 
of his own benevolent nature rather than the impru- 
dent rancour of Metternich. Tuscan as he was by 
disposition and by remembrance, and neglected in 
Austria, he disliked the Germans, whom he called 
wooden^ and the Court of Vienna with its haughtinesses, 
its jealousies and its rigid etiquette, inspired him with 
both ridicule and pity. At Salzburg, which place they 
had given him after making no end of difficulty 
about it, he complained of the climate, of solitude, 
of the position of the city, of the want of ices, 
and of his grief at never seeing any Italians. 

He named, as his Secretary of State, Count Vittorio 
Fossombroni, and gave him for companions in the 




THE GRAND DUKE FERDINAND III 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 263 

Ministry, but with lower grades, Don Neri Corsini 
for the Interior, and Leonardo Frullani for Finance. 
Fossombroni, an excellent mathematician and hydraulic 
engineer, " did the best he could, and from 1 8 1 5 
onwards was the Minister of the quietest sovereign in 
the quietest province of Italy." ^ 

Prince and minister were fully agreed as to the 
dignity of the sovereign and the independence of 
the State. Ferdinand III. was outspoken, and did not 
disguise his admiration for Napoleon, to whom alone, 
and not to his brother the Emperor, he owed the 
principality of Wiirzburg, given to him as a pledge 
by the Treaty of Luneville. To those who applied 
to him for titles or places, alleging as a claim that they 
had never served the usurper, he replied : " You did 
ill ; I served him, and so might you." Adverse to the 
policy of Metternich, which he considered injurious 
to the interests of his house, and jealous of his own 
independence, one day when the Count of Fiquelmont, 
the Austrian minister, attempted to arouse his suspicions 
with regard to certain of the most prominent citizens 
of Florence, he replied, " Your Excellency will inform 
your sovereign, as I will inform my brother^ that 
for my own subjects, I alone am responsible." 

With less haughtiness, nay, even with a smoothness 
of manner bordering upon irony, the minister of 
this excellent prince, who was a man of wit as well 
as a man of science, and to whom mathematics had 
taught the equation of politics and good sense, replied 
* Martini. Giusti^s Memoires, 



264 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

to the Austrian minister, who asked for 300,000 scudi 
on account of a certain debt which he declared to 
be owing to the Emperor of Austria, in the following 
terms : 

" Your Excellency, I might dispute the point as 
to whether this money were owing to His Majesty, but 
it would be time lost, for I have not got the 300,000 
scudi. ^^ 

*' But His Majesty the Emperor wants them." 

" If your Excellency were to inform me that His 
Majesty the Emperor had taken into his head to ask 
me for 300,000 elephants, I could but reply — I have 
not got them.' 

" But I must write to Vienna." .... 

" Your Excellency will write that the Minister 
Fossombroni is always ready to comply with the 
demands of His Majesty the Emperor, whatever he 
may deign to ask, but that at this moment he has 
neither 300,000 scudi nor 300,000 elephants." 

Another anecdote which shows the man. 

His private secretary (then more modestly entitled 
his confidential clerk) brought to him one morning 
a number of papers for signature ; and then, as 
happened later on to De Sanctis, one of Victor 
Emmanuel's ministers famous for his absence of mind, 
mistaking the inkstand for the jar of sand, he blotted 
all the sheets. The official felt himself turning into 
stone, but let slip a " And now ^ " 

" And now," replied Fossombroni with his usual 
bonhomie^ " we will go to luncheon." 




THE TOWER OF THE ADIMAUI AT THE ENTRANCE OF VIA CAI.ZAJOLI. 

[To fact- tfge 265. 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 265 

" But — all these affairs ? " 

" To-morrow, my friend, to-morrow. The luncheon 
may burn, and the State won't." 

" And for that ' day," writes the clever son of 
that same secretary, " the couriers did not start ; 
Tuscany governed herself, and nobody was the wiser." 
'' The world goes of itself," Fossombroni used to say, 
considering the phrase as a profound political aphorism. 
Wherefore, many men of to-day, some of them minis- 
ters, have blamed him. But, in my opinion, it is 
better so. It would be a good deal worse if ministers 
had the guiding of it. 

Whatever other people may think, Tuscany under 
the restored government of Ferdinand III. enjoyed 
happy years, full of material prosperity and mild 
liberalism, with laws which, if not absolutely excellent, 
were certainly applied with great moderation. A state 
lying, as Niccolini the poet put it, between Orbetello 
and Scaricalasino was not difficult to govern. The 
people rested tranquilly after all their ups and 
downs, rather supine if you like, but honest and 
safe in those years, protected from the insolent inter- 
ference of Austria by the vigilance of the sovereign 
and his ministers. The aristocracy, petted by the 
Court, was wisely withheld from any political promi- 
nence that might appear overbearing ; the lower classes 
were favoured ; the average minds, so easily guided, 
were flattered by clever blandishments ; exiles and 
liberals were watched without excessive rigour. The 
aim striven for was that Tuscans of all classes and 



266 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

conditions should be united in love of their country 
and of their sovereign and form one single family. 
To the Grand Duke repose and easy life were welcome ; 
he liked the comforts of his position better than its 
cares ; he loved the idleness of his Medicean villas, 
where he enjoyed the company of men of culture, 
like Gino Capponi, who was his chamberlain. 

Capponi used to relate how once the ministers arrived 
at Poggio a Cajano in a great hurry from Florence, 
to hold a Council of State. When the ministers were 
gone, the Grand Duke called Capponi into the hall in 
which the Council had been held and which was hung 
with damask brocaded with flowers, and pointing out 
certain roses which recurred from time to time in 
the pattern of the silk, asked him if it appeared 
to him that they all had the same number of leaves. 
Capponi replying in the affirmative, the Grand Duke 
rejoined, " You are mistaken, because in that corner 
there is one which has one leaf less than the rest, 
perhaps through the weaver's carelessness." And it 
was true, but the Grand Duke to have discovered it, 
must, during the council, have paid more attention 
to the leaves of the roses than to the business of the 
State ! 






X 




II 



nPHE canvas is small and narrow. The figures, too, 
^ are small. 
The Florence of that period was but the bud of 
the Florence of our day, and which has bloomed 
into the flower so full of fragrance and of colour. 
It then contained about 80,000 inhabitants, and 
inside the perimeter of its fourth and last circle 
of walls were market and other gardens, and fields 
enough to fill up a good third of the whole space. 
In the centre the streets around the old market 
and the Ghetto, whose destruction we ourselves have 
witnessed, were narrow, inconvenient and crooked. 
Via dei Calzaioli, then called Via de' Pittori and Corso 
degli Adimari, was so narrow that two carriages could 
not pass through it abreast, and when it was widened 
in 1842, by throwing down the old tower which 
dominated its entrance into Piazza del Duomo, the 
gentle muse of Emilio FruUani thus lamented the 
departure of the ancient landmark : 

"Thou, too, must go, old tower 
Of Adimari's line ; 
But through no foeman's power 

Shall fall those stones of thine. 
Men, greedy of mere gain, shall lay thee low 
With cruel shouts, more ruthless than the foe." 
267 



268 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The Lung' Arni then ended at Ponte alia Carraja, 
and a little above Piazza Cavalleggeri ; on the other 
side, at Santa Trinita and at the little tower of Santa 
Rosa. Very narrow were Via Martelli, Via de' Cerre- 
tani, Via de' Panzani, and Via de' Tornabuoni, where 
the loggetta of Palazzo Corsi was on the side towards 
Palazzo Strozzi. The Cascine stretched as far up 
as Santa Lucia sul Prato and were reached from Porta 
Pfato or from the Porticciola of Piazza delle Mulina, 
where Via Curtatone now is. Between Via Valfonda 
and Via della Scala, over the area now covered by 
the station and the adjacent streets, extended gardens 
and farms. Between Via San Zanobi and the pre- 
sent Via Guelfa as far as the Wall were farms and 
gardens ; gardens also between Via del Maglio (now 
Via Lamarmora) and Via Gino Capponi (then Via S. 
Sebastiano), and in that large square bounded by Borgo 
Pinti, Via de' Pilastri and Borgo la Croce, and the 
Walls from Porta alia Croce to the old Porta Pinti, 
where the closed Protestant cemetery now stands. In 
Piazza del Granduca (Piazza della Signoria) between 
Calimaruzza and Vacchereccia the Tetto de' Pisani 
(Pisans' roof) covered the building occupied by the 
Post Office, where entered and whence issued to the 
sound of a cornet the public coaches, with postilions 
arrayed in varied hues riding the horses, lively and 
vivacious at their departure, covered with dust and 
sweat ■ on their longed-for arrival, with a crowd of 
curious people, loafers and boys surrounding and 
tormenting them. Through the gratings of the Post 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 269 

Office were distributed the letters and papers, and on 
post-days (for at that blest period even the post had 
some rest), all those who expected anything crowded 
under the Tetto de' Pisani, and asked for letters with 
the same anxiety with which they ask for them to-day 
and were met by the same exasperating indifference. 
Ordinarily, except in the principal streets or on 
some great Church holiday or civic anniversary, few 
people were to be seen. There were no public 
vehicles; until 1824, S. Fiacre had no devotees among 
the Florentines. In that year there appeared five or 
six, which were stationed in the Piazza del Duomo 
near the Stone of Dante. In Via Larga (now Via 
Cavour) opposite the Palazzo Riccardi the grass grew 
between the stones. The shops were modest enough, 
and built in an antique fashion, like the oldest ones on 
the Ponte Vecchio and those which have disappeared 
in recent years from the vicinity of the Badia. They 
had usually a low wall in front, in which there was 
a small narrow door, and on each side of the door 
narrow openings filled with greenish glass which shed 
a not too brilliant light within ; the prices were as 
modest as the appearance of the shops. After 18 14 
more elegant establishments began to appear, and 
also the first plate-glass windows, mentioned in his 
Manuscript Chronicle by Gaetano Nardi, cook to 
the illustrious Marchesi Niccolini, who left to his 
padroni more than twenty volumes of contemporary 
history, in which he discoursed on archaeology and 
public buildings, on religion and politics, bearing 



270 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

witness to the close connection there always has been 
between politics and the kitchen. 

Life in Florence in those days, public life at least, 
consisted of Church festivals, of processions, solemn 
and splendid ; of fairs for the sale of hazel-nuts and 
of basket work and earthenware ; of reviews, or, as 
they were then called, military parades ; in races by 
barebacked horses {corse de' barbari) which were run 
for pennons and banners. There was the festa di 
San Giovanni (St. John the Baptist's Day) with the 
Roman chariot race in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, 
and fireworks which generally dropped down in a 
luminous shower of rockets from the tower of the 
Palazzo Vecchio. There were masquerades, there 
were festini under the arches of the Uffizi, and 
there were balls. The Scoppio del Carro^ that is, 
the flight of the dove on Easter Even, the fair at 
the SS. Annunziata on the 8 th of September with 
illuminations and paper lanterns {rijicolone) brought 
into the city crowds of peasants and inhabitants of the 
neighbouring towns, good quiet people (^terrazzani) who 
during these solemnities consumed with parsimonious 
gourmanderie one of those ices which were sold at the 
Bottegone, cool and delicious, rising pyramidally from 
a slender and shallow little glass. The processions 
and the solemn services in the churches, re-established 
in 1815 when the great functions at the Feasts of 
Corpus Domini and St. John the Baptist were renewed, 
filled the souls of all the people with delight, and all 
such as could not attend them, with regret. Giacomo 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 271 

Leopard i, tormented by one of his thousand maladies, 
wrote in 1829: "To-morrow will be for me a day 
like the rest. The others will have chariot-races, 
horse-races, the best in Italy, fireworks which cost 
untold thousands. . ' . . I shall see nothing, and I 
don't like it at all," and indeed, there was cause for 
lamentation. At Corpus Domini there was the great 
procession, prepared, expected, looked forward to 
with longing. On the previous days, long white 
awnings were erected along the streets where the 
procession was to pass, and the city already began 
to assume a festive aspect. Those who lived above 
the first floors had to make up their minds to see 
nothing, but those more favoured by fortune hung 
carpets and tapestries out of their windows and their 
balconies, and prepared bombole^ scartocci^ and padelle 
for the illumination, that is, lamps of paper and of 
glass, and flat little pans full of tallow, with floating 
wicks. All this aroused the rapture of the children, 
whose mouths already watered for the coming sweets 
and who dreamed at night of the fireworks, the soldiers, 
and the roaring of the cannon. Finally, the great 
day arrived, hailed by the pealing of the bells of all 
the churches. The solemn moment drew near. 
Here comes the procession ; first go the clergy of 
San Lorenzo and of the Cathedral, the students of 
the seminaries preceding the higher clergy. Following 
them comes a battalion of grenadiers. Here are the 
Court liveries, the nobility in full dress and swords, 
and all the official world in grande tenue. Next 



272 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

follow the canons of the Cathedral, all sorts of 
custodians and janitors in gala dress ; then the 
chamberlains, covered with crosses and gold em- 
broidery ; then the higher Church dignitaries, with 
magnificent fur mantles ; the members of the Council 
bearing torches presented by the Court ; the ecclesiastics 
who are Ministers, in splendid vestments ; the Court 
officials bearing tapers ; and finally the Canopy, 
flanked by eight pages, with the precentors in line, 
without tapers, and eight life-guards with their 
carbines. The staves of the Canopy are borne by 
the Knights of St. Stephen, robed in long white 
mantles with sleeves lined with red, and a purple 
cross on the left side, or on the breast ; and behind 
the Canopy, His Highness the Grand Duke, with 
four life-guards carrying carbines, followed by the 
Grand Chamberlain the " secretary of etiquette," the 
officers of the palace, and the magistracy. A brigade 
of mounted guards closes the procession, with the 
Tuscan soldiers with enormous casques, and the 
drums in double and triple file, followed by the 
pipers, directed, guided, tyrannised over by the 
gigantic drum-major who alternately makes them 
play their instruments to a deafening extent, and 
then, by one majestic wave of his ebony baton, stops 
them short, as though turned into stone. On the 
afternoon of Saint John's Eve there were chariot-races 
in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, which the Court, 
in State coaches, attended with great pomp, taking 
their places with the Ministers and foreign envoys 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 273 

in a box prepared for them under the Loggia di 
S. Paolo, opposite the church. The function opened 
with a parade of carriages, while the boxes of the 
amphitheatre erected on the piazza, the windows, the 
balconies, even the roofs of the houses were crowded 
with spectators. Then, at the proper hour, the 
soldiers cleared the piazza and the four Roman 
chariots made their appearance, each driven by an 
auriga (we will not say a coachman) dressed in 
antique fashion, one in red, one in yellow, one in 
blue, and one in green, to match the colour of the 
chariots. When they had all taken their places, 
the signal was given, and amid the frantic applause 
and the anxious attention of the crowd, the chariots 
drove three times round the course, and the one 
who first reached the goal had the honour of a 
triumph, the shouts, the embraces, and the glories 
of a day. In the evening there were fireworks from 
the Palazzo Vecchio, and, after 1826, on the Ponte 
alia Carraja. The city was illuminated, including 
the Cathedral, the Campanile, and the Baptistry, 
and there was music in the Piazza del Duomo. 
On St. John's Day, the Gonfaloniere, with the 
civil magistrates, proceeded to the Baptistry for the 
offering of the taper, after which there was High 
Mass in the Duomo, the Archbishop officiating, 
and the Court in attendance. In the afternoon 
Corso de barberi from Porta al Prato to Porta alia 
Croce, with a rich banner, which had been blessed 
in the Church of San Giovanni as prize. The Court 

18 



274 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

witnessed the spectacle from the terrace at the 
entrance to the Prato, with the horse-guards drawn 
up in front. The ground was covered by the horses 
in about seven minutes, and from the top of the 
Porta alia Croce there were sent off certain puffs 
of gunpowder to apprize the populace which of 
the horses had got in first. These signals were 
repeated from the Cupola of the Duomo. The 
sovereign, seeing them from his place on the 
terrace, wrote down the name of the victor on the 
tablets in his hand and flung them among the 
crowd. In the evening grand spettacolo di gala at 
the Theatre in Via della Pergola, with grand illu- 
mination and free entrance for the people, as well 
as an open-air festa in the gardens of the Teatro 
Santa Maria on the other side of the Arno (now 
called the Teatro Goldoni). But let us not forget 
the salvoes of artillery and of musketry, on the 
Piazza del Duomo and from the Forte di Belvedere 
while the Court was present at High Mass. 
At the order " Present arms ! " called out by the 
mounted officers in command, the fusileers executed 
the twenty-four prescribed movements; the ramrods 
gleaming in the sun were drawn quickly from their 
rests, whirled skilfully around in the active fingers 
of the soldiers, dropped all together with a great 
clang into the barrels of the muskets, to be drawn 
out again, once more whirled rapidly about, and 
returned to their rests. The muskets were brought 
to the shoulder, then dropped ringing on the 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 275 

ground, raised once more, and from those thousands 
mouths of fire broke forth the salute with a noise 
like thunder, while a dense white cloud of smoke 
enveloped all the scene. The women and children 
screamed at the report and stopped their ears, 
and after the echo died away the soldiers were 
seen once more as immovable as if they had been 
made of wood. For every salute, twenty-four move- 
ments, and three minutes to manoeuvre ! Just time 
to get out of reach of the shot. 



Ill 



A LL these amusements and functions, even the 
-^^ cricket-hunting in the Cascine in the early morn- 
ing of Ascension Day, were participated in by the Court 
and the fashionable world — who, as Stendahl says, put 
into practice the art of being happy without stopping to 
think how difficult it is to attain happiness. The finest 
people in society, the nobility and the richest citizens 
were not afraid to spend the greater part of the year 
in Florence. To the country, to villeggiare as they 
called it, they went only in May and June, returning 
to the city for Corpus Domini and St. John's Day. 
In the town, in the old houses and palaces, .in the 
narrow streets, where, in the hottest weather, a cool 
air issued from the cellars and the dim courts, they 
feared not the heats of summer nor felt the need 
of trips to watering-places or to the mountains. The 
baths were only for such as were seriously ill, and the 
physicians knew the therapeutic virtues only of the 
baths of San Giuliano and Montecatini, and sent there 
only those who were really in need of the cure, and 
not, as they do now, whole families at a time. After 

the fair of the SS. Annunziata they went back to the 

276 



THF TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 277 

country, and stayed there until Michaelmas, without 
other diversions that the usual country drives, the 
paretajo or bird-hunting, and the chase, at the proper 
times and places. Sometimes there were simple coun- 
try balls at the time of the vintage and jeux innocents 
like berlina or tibidb. In town, in the winter, there were 
conversazioni^ simple receptions where the company 
played at quadrille, at whist, at homhre^ and other 
games, where there was a little music with piano- 
forte, cembalo^ violins, 'celli, and " chamber-singers." 
Refreshments were handed round, sorbets, syrups, 
sometimes tea. In the summer these receptions took 
place in the gardens, and the company partook of iced 
water-melon. The lady of the house always received 
in a high dress, as low necks and dress coats were only 
worn at parties to which one had a written invitation. 
Among the most long-established salons was that 
of the Countess of Albany, who lived, as is well 
known, in the Palazzo Gianfigliazzi on the Lung' 
Arno. In their latter years, the Countess and her 
friend, the painter Fabre, had become greatly soured, 
especially the lady, perhaps because she was annoyed 
to find that everybody respected her, save only Time. 
The Countess' Saturdays were very much frequented 
by foreigners, by diplomats, and by Florentines, who 
harassed her with bitter epigrams, such as — 

" To the Lung' Arno many strangers go ; 
Relics of Alfieri there they find, you know." 

One evening, Massimo d'Azeglio went there after the 



278 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

performance at the Pergola, with the brothers Robilant, 
then newly arrived in Florence, and heard the Duchess 
say, turning to Prince Borghese : " A quelle heure 
viennent ces Messieurs ! " D'Azeglio, pulverised by 
this flash of lightning, drew back and accosted the 
Count of Castellalfero, Sardinian Minister in Tuscany 
(who, as it was a gala night, was wearing his grand 
uniform, covered with gold embroidery, ribbons, 
crosses, and orders in diamonds), and received Massimo 
with his usual benevolence. Reassured, D'Azeglio 
took it into his head to help himself to an ice, one 
of those especially hard ones, which were then called 
mattonelle (little bricks) and were modelled into the 
shape of a peach. " I was standing," says D'Azeglio, 
"just in front of the Count, and while I was vainly 
striving to make an impression on my ice with the 
spoon, what does it do but slip off from under it, 
like a cherry-stone that is snapped ? I see it now, 
bounding against the minister's diamond cross, falling 
to the floor, and rolling straight to the Countess of 
Albany's feet. I felt as if I should never leave off^ 
running. That was my last visit." When the 
Countess died, in 1824, her loss was felt less keenly 
by the greater number of the Florentines and the 
foreigners than it ought to have been. " Good 
society, in all countries," observed Gino Capponi, 
" est un mauvais lieu avoue," and it is thought the 
proper thing to speak ill of those whose company one 
frequents the most. 

But there was no lack of hospitable houses in 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 279 

Florence. The Marchesa Clementina Incontri, nata 
di Prie, a very highly cultivated lady, opened the 
doors of her palace in Via de' Pucci to the most select 
society, the Piedmontese visitors especially were to 
be found there, and all the letterati. In Case Incontri, 
as in Casa Rinuccini, the most learned and most liberal 
people were best received, because since the time of 
the French these two families had been the centre 
of the Italian party of progress, and were partisans 
of Eugene Beauharnais, dreaming of and working for 
the special mission of Tuscany in the Italian kingdom. 
The Marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini and the 
Marchese Ludovico Incontri had been always exceed- 
ingly well received in the house of the Minister 
Tassoni, who represented the Viceroy of Italy at the 
Court of the Queen of Etruria, and afterwards during 
the French provisional government, and that of the 
Grand Duchess Elisa Baciocchi. The liberal traditions 
of the two families were shown also by their family 
connections, for of the three daughters of Rinuccini 
one married the Marchese Trivulzio of Milan, one 
Don Neri Corsini Marchese di Lajatico, and the 
third an emigrant from the dominions of the Pope, 
Marchese Azzolino, while one of Gino Capponi's 
daughters married the son of the Marchese Ludovico 
Incontri. 

In Casa Rinuccini, as well in their palace on the 
Oltrarno (in Via S. Spirito) and at the Villa alia Torre 
a Quona, music was much cultivated, and there were 
some excellent amateur performances. At the little 



28o MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

theatre at Torre a Quona, there once remained, 
perhaps there still remain, relics of those days 
in the costumes by means of which the dames and 
cavaliers of the time transformed themselves into 
the personages of Goldoni, of Giraud, and of Nota. 
At one time the Marchese Pier Francesco Rinuccini 
set the fashion of picnic suppers which took place 
in summer, when lively companies started off in 
carriages in the cool starlight nights for some place 
in the environs of the town. These suppers lasted 
sometimes nearly until dawn, the palaces remaining 
closed and silent in the absence of the padroni. One 
night, the Marchese Rinuccini, returning unexpectedly 
to the palace in town, found no one in the porter's 
lodge. Ascending the stairs almost in the dark, he 
entered the house, to find it all illuminated, and to 
nearly stumble over a servant with a tray of refresh- 
ments. " Where are you going .? What are you 
doing?" he cried. The servant stopped short in terror. 
The Marquis pursued his way, and flinging open the 
door of the great hall, he beheld a singular sight, 
couples dancing, who at his appearance seemed to have 
turned into stone. The footmen, the chambermaids, 
the woman who had charge of the house-linen (^guarda- 
robd)y the porters, and the inhabitants of the kitchens 
and the stables were disporting themselves in the style 
and fashion of their masters and mistresses, a veritable 
" high-life below stairs " in the rooms of state. Some 
of the lady-dancers fainted away. The master had 
infinite trouble to preserve a grave and stern de- 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 281 

meanour ! But after that night the fancy for those 
suppers waned in the fashionable circle. 

The indulgent good-humour of the patricians never 
gave way. If the . Grand Duke went out to walk with 
a shawl over his arm, carrying an umbrella, the other 
gentlemen were no less cordial, expansive and easy 
going. Even in the most aristocratic houses persons 
of other classes were received, and on Sundays and 
Thursdays there was always a place at table for some 
priest, some artist or literary man, who brought with 
him the news of the day and stayed for a game 
of cards in the evening. Expenses were not heavy ; 
the table was abundant but not luxurious, foreign wines 
came into fashion later, with the parvenus^ and Tuscan 
throats were contented with vermouth^ with vin santo 
and trehhiano drawn from the flourishing vineyards 
as yet untouched by disease, which had been sung 
by Redi and Carli. 

To give something of a picture of Florentine life at 
that time we quote a few passages from a letter written 
from Vienna in April, 1822, to the Senator Giovanni 
degli Alessandri, President of the Academy of Fine 
Arts, and Director of the Galleries, by Count Angelo 
Maria D'Elci, a great and wise collector of books, 
and a bitingly satiric poet. D'Elci, who presented 
his exceedingly rich collection of rare books to the 
Laurentian Library, was a ferocious codino (reactionary), 
who hailed with joy the fall of Napoleon and the 
return of the fatherly rule of the Grand Duke. His 
epistolary style was decidedly free and easy, and his 



282 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

letters to Alessandri are a good deal more racy than 
any of the epigrams which he published. " As to the 
uniformity of the life which you lead there, believe me 
that here in Vienna it is exactly the same thing ; with 
this difFerence, that there everything is done in a small 
and ugly, and everything here in a gigantic and 
magnificent style. There you play at cards and you 
lose at most five pauls a night, here also we play 
and lose four or five hundred sequins. I am speaking 
of games of society, hombre^ whist, &c. When the 
Neapolitan Ambassador gives dinners, every dinner 
costs three or four hundred sequins. Whence it 
comes that the great personages here are gouty and 
unhealthy, and shorten their lives and render them 
uncomfortable by over-eating and drinking, and all 
sorts of other vices. It is just the same, I know, in 
Florence, but at all events, they don't spend too much. 
I don't talk of luxury in the way of horses, carriages, 
liveries, and furniture, nor do I speak of the magnifi- 
cence of the debts, and of the failures. During the 
whole of my life in Florence I knew of but one failure, 
that of Sassi, which did any sort of honour to the 
country." And he goes on grumbling at those who 
ruin every form of principle, devour their substance, 
hinder instruction, subvert the family, and trouble 
the administration, both public and private. " Li my 
opinion, the universal disease is Epicureanism, and, 
believe me, idleness, negligence, ignorance, corruption, 
ambition itself, come of an excessive pursuit of pleasure 
per fas et nefasy 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 283 

But these reactionary growls, not certainly altogether 
undeservedj were more applicable to Vienna than to 
Florence, where the elegant corruption of the great 
cities found an effectual check in the parsimony of the 
subjects and of the government of the Grand Duke. 
I do not say that the asceticism of the Sanfedisti 
reigned at Florence, but I do say that prodigality of 
expenditure was almost unknown there. The only 
amusements were religious holidays, theatres, and re- 
ceptions. In the palace where, in 1304, the Cardinal 
of Prato was a guest, and in the gardens whose 
shady alleys climb the slope of the Costa, a wide 
hospitality was practised by the Mozzi family, under 
the rule of the beautiful Countess Teresa. La Belle 
Italienne^ as Napoleon called her, admiring her classical 
beauty, would have deserved an ode from Foscolo, if 
to the three Graces of Greek mythology had been 
added a fourth, sacred to pleasure. The society 
which crowded her rooms, or wandered in the discreet 
shades of her gardens, was rather mixed and not 
greatly burdened with etiquette, the temperament 
of the hostess not being severe. 

We must also mention the lordly hospitality of 
the Marchese Luisa and Margherita Panciatichi, in 
Via Larga (now Via Cavour) opposite the Palazzo 
Riccardi. Also the receptions in Casa Tempi, in Via 
de' Bardi, now Casa Bargagli, where the most elegant 
and worldly set gathered night after night, and where 
marriages were arranged, prepared, and rendered more 
easy by the courteous indulgence of the Marchesa. 



284 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Nor must the Orlandini be forgotten, in the palace 
where, later on, dwelt Jerome Bonaparte, Count de 
Montfort. But most renowned were the Mondays 
of another lady, whose conversazioni were frequented, 
in 1 8 12 and 1813, while he was in Florence, by a 
certain devotee of the fair sex, Ugo Foscolo, who 
immortalised her in The Graces^ thus: — 

" From an ornate abode by Arno's shore 
Which Raphael once his brushes laid aside 
To build, that there, in future days, might dwell 
So fair a being ; issued forth the first, 
A lovely mortal, and beside the altar 
Her place she takes, while round her beauteous form 
The snowy bisso flows, and her white fingers 
Grow rosy, as they clasp the golden harp 
She holds against her breast." 

In this palace, at the top of Via San Gallo, not 
built by Raphael, but begun by Gianfrancesco Sangallo 
and finished in 1538 by Bastiano d'Aristotile, Eleonora 
Pandolfini-Nencini, the beautiful harp-player, con- 
tinued during the Restoration and even later to show 
herself worthy of the poetic homage and the passion 
with which she had inspired Ugo Foscolo, and to do 
the honours of the " ornate abode " with a grace which 
even her rivals, nay, the Duchess of Albany herself, 
did not succeed in blackening. In Casa Corsini 
the invitations were much fewer — the Prince, Don 
Tommaso, nominated Senator at Rome, entertained 
much more in that city than in Florence. But between 
1 8 17 and 1824 the young ladies of the family, with 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 285 

their governess, Signora Enriquez, set the example of 
a new style of reception to their young friends and 
companions, which proved an agreeable novelty often 
imitated. After .1821 the tranquil condition of 
Florence induced many great families to take up 
their abode there. Don Camillo Borghese, tired of 
wanderings and emigrations, came, with his brother 
Francesco, Prince Aldobrandini, and settled down in 
the present Villino Salviati, in Borgo Pinti. In 1825, 
in the Villa Zambeccari, now Fabbricotti, after a long 
and painful illness, died Pauline Bonaparte, another 
Canovian beauty, with a light, capricious little head 
and a heart of marble or of flame. Her funeral took 
place with great pomp, the obsequies being celebrated 
in the Church of the Badia, whence the corpse was 
sent on to Rome in a funeral car. Prince Camillo 
Borghese, her husband, seems not to have been quite 
broken-hearted, since, a very short time after, he 
ordered the architect Baccani to build for him, within 
the space of eighteen months, the palace which now 
stands in Via Ghibellina, on the site of certain houses 
which belonged to the Salviati, and which still bears 
his name. When the palace was finished, with a 
punctuality bordering on the miraculous, he gave 
there magnificent fetes and receptions which were 
attended by the Court. 

Dispossessed princes and kings in exile sought 
refuge under the protection of Ferdinand III., 
who made some difficulty in conceding it. The 
intervention of the Emperor Francis was required, 



286 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

before Louis Bonaparte, the ex-King of Holland, who 
had taken the name of Count of Saint Leu, could obtain 
permission to establish himself at Florence. He first 
bought from the Capponi delle Rovinate, a villa at Mon- 
tughi, and afterwards the Gianfigliazzi Palace, where he 
spent the remainder of his life. At Montughi he con- 
futed Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon^ composed 
romances, which he read aloud to the Countess of 
Albany, who found them heavy and tiresome, and 
often neglected to pay his debts. In 1822, a certain 
Viviani was the ex-king's creditor for the sum of eight 
hundred scudi^ for hay and corn for his horses. The 
Count of Saint Leu proposed to strike a hundred scudi 
off the bill, which Viviani would not consent to ; on the 
contrary, he insisted in a very arrogant manner upon 
the immediate payment of the debt, without any 
deduction. The prince, alarmed by the menacing 
attitude of his creditor, took out his pistols, called 
for his servants, and Viviani was turned out of the 
house. In the meantime Viviani's wife, who was 
waiting for him outside, met in the avenue a boy 
with blue eyes and an aquiline nose, to whom she 
roundly abused the Count, being by no means sparing 
of her epithets regarding a man who had been a king 
and yet did not pay his debts. " But the Count is my 
father, madam ! " replied the boy who was destined to 
become the Emperor Napoleon III. The woman was 
shocked at her mistake, but the day after the debt 
was paid in full. 

After the Count of Saint Leu, two of his brothers 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 287 

came to Florence : Joseph, who had taken the title 
of Count de Surviller, and Jerome, who called himself 
Count de Montfort. Joseph, with Madame Clary 
and Mademoiselle Zenaide, lived in the Serristori 
Palace, where he gave sumptuous dinners, but no 
grand balls or receptions, as Madame Clary was in 
weak health. He protected the arts, patronised 
artists, and went every day to the Cascine in a large 
caieche with eight springs, the body and the coach- 
box being straw-coloured, like all the equipages of 
the Bonapartes. The Count of Montfort, the 
youngest of the brothers, had hired the Orlandini 
Palace, where his two children, Jerome and Matilde, 
completed their education. King Jerome's green 
liveries, his fetes, his adventures, diversified the 
dulness of Florentine life and were long remembered 
by everybody. Jules Janin, who was in Florence in 
1838, mentions a sumptuous fete given by Jerome, 
which was attended by the Bourbons of Naples and 
of Spain and where the honours were done by a 
young girl tout blanche et rose^ the Princess Mathilde, 
who received her guests, not like an exiled princess, 
but like a charming parisienne^ forgotten on the 
banks of the Arno. The Bonapartes were in the 
habit of meeting in the evenings at the house of 
Joseph, in the Serristori Palace, and in that palace, 
given up to the Count de Surviller by the Count 
Nicholas DemidofF, took place the marriage between 
the young Mathilde and Anatole DemidofF, to whom 
the Grand Duke gave the title of Prince of San Donato. 



288 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

The DemidofFs had been in Florence since 1809. 
The memory of Count Nicholas, as rich as Croesus 
and as benevolent as he was rich, is still held in honour 
among us. In 18 14 he bought the convent of San 
Donato, turned it, in a very short time, into a 
magnificent villa, surrounded by a park, adorned with 
temples and statues in the taste of the day, and full of 
the rarest plants. Then he gave himself to good 
works — founded asylums, refuges, free schools, and 
workshops, and distributed pensions. His brother 
Paul, also enormously rich, did not resemble him in 
the least : he led a solitary life, and only at rare 
intervals gave some grand fete or ball on which he 
spent thousands. In 1831 he gave a ball for which 
he had all the reception rooms newly hung with 
damask, and afterwards had it all taken off and gave 
it away to the servants, who sold it for 100,000 francs. 
He could not bear to touch any object, if any one had 
touched it without gloves. One day he was found 
by a friend, sedulously intent upon dipping certain 
bills of the Bank of St. Petersburg into perfumed 
water contained in a golden chalice. " I am washing 
these bits of paper," he said, " because they smell 
horribly." 

Another time he invited an English diplomat to 
breakfast with him, who in a fit of absence of mind, 
while engaged in conversation, took a lump of sugar 
out of the sugar-basin with his fingers. The Russian 
immediately ordered the servant to throw the rest of 
the sugar out of the window. But the phlegmatic 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 289 

Englishman was not in the least discomposed. When 
he had finished his coiFee, he flung cup, saucer and 
spoon out of the window, and turned to his host with 
a smile : " I did nbt know before," he said, " of this 
Russian custom." 

With the DemidofFs and the Borgheses, and later 
on, the Poniatoski, life in the gay world of Florence 
changed its character. The Court was eclipsed, 
foreigners flowed into the place from all parts of 
Europe and in the drawing-rooms there were to be 
heard all manner of languages. Lamartine, who, in 
1829, was C/iarg^ d'affaires at Florence, eulogised the 
Prince, the violets that bloomed in February and the 
grand fetes to which he was invited. " Je termine tres 
honorablement mon carnaval par deux grands festins. 
Sur ce je souhaite le bonsoir a mon cuisinier, et j'entre 
dans, la classes des grands seigneurs du pays, qui 
mangent, et ne donnent point a manger." '<I1 fait 
ici" (it was in December of 1827) " un printemps 
superbe, ces temps-ci. Mais a peine avons nous le 
temps d'en jouir, et de sortir : c'est un brouhaha 
interminable. II y a toute I'Europe voyageante, et 
chaque annee cela devient plus nombreux en Francais." 
''Nous voyons beaucoup le prince Borghese. Sa 
maison est des mille et une nuits ; plus encore que 
celle de M. Demidoff. Enfin c'est un monde et un 
eclat a en perdre la tete. II faut s'habiller a dix heures 
et sortir a onze heures, les bals commencent a minuit." 
And in February, 1 828, he added : " Nous n'avons plus 
qu'un grand bal a avaler, chez le prince Borghese, 

19 



290 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

apres demain, et un diner diplomatique chez moi 
dimanche." And in April: "Nous avons ici un 
grand monde diplomatique, en ce moment, le carnaval 
a recommence, et nous ennuie et fatigue. C'est tous 
les jours un diner, tous les soirs un bal." And in 
May : " Florence est dans sa beaute physique, car nous 
avons deja vingt degres de chaleur. Mais elle est dans 
la solitude et le deuil pour la mort de M. Demidoff, 
qui y tenait plus d'etat qu'une ou deux cours, avec ses 
dix millions de rente." And in June : " Nous 
sommes dans une semaine de fetes jusqu'au cou, des 
cours de chars, de chevaux, des theatres. Toute la 
journee en uniforme, et en gala par la ville, et toute la 
nuit en bals." And in July (there were 28 degrees 
Reaumur of heat) : " II n'y a pas d'amitie, pas de 
verve, pas de zele qui resiste a vingt huit degres : 
I'amour seul est a cette temperature et veritablement 
c'est son regne a Florence. Les nuits sont divines. 
Je les passes a errer en caleche dans les rues, ou sous 
les pins harmonieux des Cascines environne des beautes 
seduisantes qui disent ohime et a qui je ne dis rien." 



But, we will pause a moment to observe these lovely 
creatures, who say ohime and seek in the cool of the 
evening relief from the suffocating heat, perhaps also 
from the ardour of passion. No longer were rosy and 
lively visages the fashion, no longer were coral lips the 
theme of song. Times were changed, as far back as 
1824 Guadagnoli says : 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 291 

" A red face only suits a country inn, 
Nor such the features courtly hearts to win." 

Women had become pallid, languid, sentimental. 
The anemia of romanticism, the subtle poison of 
passion, had penetrated into their blood, and there 
reigned a new, mysterious, intimate ardour, hitherto 
unknown. Formerly when the Gazzetta di Firenze 
announced on the fourth page, the Pleasing and 
Instructive Library, published by Guglielmo Piatti, 
which contained The History of Four Spaniards in 
eleven volumes. The Misfortunes of the Family of 
Ortenberg in six volumes, the Cemetery of the 
Magdalen in eight volumes, and other agreeable 
novelties of the same description, the ladies did not 
spend their nights in perusing them, and to the cut- 
and-dried romance of novels they preferred that which 
they constructed for themselves ; to sentiment they 
preferred reality, for even if it proved rather vulgar 
and prosaic, it was breathing and alive. All through 
the Napoleonic period, life, art and literature was 
the apotheosis of force, vigour and outward form. 
Painting, sculpture and fashion idealised material 
beauty ; and the breath of neo-helenism which was in 
the air covered with a veil of spuriously antique art 
that sensualism which the seventeenth century had 
powdered and frizzed into the costume of gallantry. 
On the disappearance of the hero (" the hero of the 
scamps," D'Elci called him) the sensualism remained. 
There was war no longer. No longer did those cruel 
butcheries of young flesh leave awful gaps in the 



292 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

family and in the census. There succeeded a certain 
joy in living, a sense of freedom as if from a dolorous 
incubus, and the longing for pleasure, the Epicureism 
of D'Elci, got the upper hand. At the Congress of 
Vienna people began to dance and to amuse themselves, 
while all Europe awaited the fiat which should settle 
her destinies. But could it arrest that maddening 
impulse ? Then came the restorations, and religion 
little by little reassured her former sway. Laws and 
edicts strove to drive the new generations, after so 
many years of Jacobinism and militarism, into the old 
paths. But weak indeed were the preachings of the 
*' President' of Good Government " and the powers of 
the Grand Duke against the torrent ! *' The world 
goes on by itself," repeated the Count Fossombroni 
with his sarcastic sneer, and the reports of the police 
showed him which way it was going. For the paternal 
Government of Ferdinand IIL and of Leopold IL was 
always very careful to know what was going on in the 
families, in the palaces of the nobles and the houses 
of the citizens. Anonymous denunciations abounded. 
Emissaries were set in motion, votes were taken, papers 
written out, the culprits were summoned to the 
Palazzo Non Finito (in Via del Proconsolo) or to the 
Commissary's office, and there were severe admonitions, 
threats of expulsion for foreigners and threats of 
imprisonment in convents and spiritual exercises for 
the natives of the country. People listened, let the 
storm go by, and went on as before — if not worse. 
The example, we must acknowledge, came from the 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 293 

higher classes ; not from the Court, however. The 
Vicars, the Chamberlains, the Magistrates and 
Governors were often subjected to inquisition, and 
their domestic infelicities were the object of inquiries 
and investigation for the Ministers, nay, for the Grand 
Duke himself. Whoever takes the trouble to read 
the ponderous files of the " Presidency of Good 
Government " will find many curious particulars. At 
that time the eye of the police was like the eye of God, 
it was everywhere, it saw through walls and ceilings, 
into elegant drawing-rooms and discreet boudoirs, and 
the benevolent shepherd of this Tuscan flock was 
obliged to acknowledge to himself that there were 
among them many wandering sheep. 

But in a happy hour came the foreigners to 
Florence, the torrent of sentimental romances ceased 
and. the image of love in fiction began to take 
another aspect. Mysticism and spiritualism came 
like a salutary balm to calm the irregular ardours 
formerly in vogue. The study of the loves of 
others dispelled the desire of realising it in fact, or 
at least covered it with a mist of ideality. And 
fashion aided in the work of reform. The classic 
garments clinging to the form were no longer 
worn. The Revolution, with savage impetus, had 
swept away the guardinfante^ the ■paniers^ the stiff 
bodices lined with buckram which compressed the 
figure. During the Empire the restoration of the 
corset was out of the question, as Madame de 
Longueville and the Empress, whose figures were 



294 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

stumpy and short-waisted, opposed it with the utmost 
determination. Later on, after 1820 and triumphantly 
in 1 82 1, it reappeared with its whalebones, its lacings, 
and its steel springs, with consummate art compressing 
the exuberant, sustaining the weak, and hiding the 
deficiencies of natute. The jewel returned to its case, 
and with more uniformity in appearance susceptible 
hearts were less easily touched. 



IV 



TI>UT, unobserved by the light and frivolous 
-^ crowd, in the midst of this whirl of mundane 
gallantry, there lived in Florence grave and serious 
men, convinced of the task which awaited Italy 
after the Napoleonic downfall ; by their writings, by 
their work, in a compact group, with ears ready to 
catch the first whisper of liberty, they prepared the 
new day of liberal institutions. They did not disdain 
to mingle with the giddy throng ; far from it, they 
hid their secret aspirations under the mask of the 
most careless frivolity. Florence had the privilege 
at that period of containing within her walls, among 
others, Gino Capponi, Cosimo Ridolfi and Pier 
Francesco Rinuccini. 

As minerals have the virtue of crystallising into 
a determinate form, so it is with certain ideal figures 
in history. To those of us who admired him in 
in his old age, blind and venerable, Gino Capponi 
seemed as if crystallised into that grave and austere 
post. The candido Gino of the Leopardian ode 
caused many to suppose him old beyond his years. 
But such he was not always ; and it is pleasant to 

295 



296 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

evoke the image of the youthful nobleman, learned, 
industrious and intelligent, who from his early years 
had given proof of culture not usual among the 
Marchesi of that day, or of any day — knowing 
Latin, Greek, French, English and German, and 
studying mathematics with real passion. He became 
a widower at twenty-two, with two little girls who were 
under the charge of his mother, the Marchesa Madda- 
lena, a most pious woman ; he was thus able to devote 
his whole life to letters, travelling through Italy, 
studying her monuments and her masterpieces of 
art, and the life of the Court to which he was called 
by the benevolence of Ferdinand IIL did not weaken 
his character. A voyage to France and to England, 
whence he returned by the way of Belgium, Holland, 
Germany and Switzerland, was really the beginning 
of his moral manliness. He there acquired ideas 
which, in a country where, as Fossombroni says, things 
were done after the fashion of a low tavern (^da vinai) 
might seem tainted with extravagant liberalism. 
England, Scotland and Ireland, with their national 
institutions, seemed to him most admirable countries. 
He made the acquaintance of illustrious persons, 
made friends with the Italian exiles, among them 
Ugo Foscolo, cherishing a dream of cultivating closer 
relations with them for the purpose of founding 
a journal. He was introduced into noble and 
hospitable houses ; obtained precious information 
about schools, education and teaching ; admired the 
horse-races, frequented booksellers' and tailors' shops, 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 297 

picking up various editions of the Decameron for 
the Abbe Masini ; executed commissions for his 
friends who wanted snuff-boxes and cambric ; filled 
his head with all. sorts of information concerning 
politics, literature and history, and his trunks with 
all sorts of things — things which were, as he said, the 
most fashionable — and returned home after his pere- 
grinations, regretting the idea that he must fall 
once more into the claws of the Austrians and the 
priests, with a mass of ordinary people worthy of 
no better fate. The effects of this journey were 
seen in the pains which he took in the founding 
of the Lancastrian schools and the system of mutual 
instruction, together with Ridolfi, and the institution 
of a College for girls of good family, which afterwards 
became, under the patronage of the Archduchess, 
the present College of the SS. Annunziata (now at 
Poggio Imperiale), The soft white hands of the 
English girls, which he greatly admired, inspired 
him with pity for the thin yellow hands of the 
daughters of Italy, condemned by their codina 
education to spend their time in useless needlework, 
in making paper flowers and imitations of fruit in 
wool, and in embroidering slippers and smoking 
caps for their papas. Meantime another design, 
that of founding a newspaper, which had occurred 
to him during his travels, while he sat gazing up 
dreamily on the tops of the diligences, had found a 
propitious occasion for its execution. In July, 18 19, 
there came to Florence a young man from Geneva, 



298 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

a native of Oneglia, who, after having travelled 
through Europe and Africa on business for his 
father and in Finland on his own account, seeing 
and observing many things, opened in Florence, in 
1820, on the first two floors of the Buondelmonti 
Palace on the Piazza Santa Trinita, a " Library and 
Reading Room " {Gahinetto Letter ario\ where met 
together by common consent the best minds of 
Italy. Jean Pierre Vieusseux united to the industry 
of a merchant, the intelligence of a journalist, the 
instinct, the moderation, the audacity of an editor 
of genius. Capponi, as soon as he met the man, 
left the whole business to Signor Pietro, as he used 
to call him with affectionate familiarity. Thus, 
to the Saggiatore, which only lasted a short time, 
succeeded the Antologia^ of which Capponi's was 
the guiding mind, because the name of Signor Gino, 
as Collini used to write it, conciliated many who 
were his friends. But on the genius loci of the 
Gahinetto and of the Antologia^ which had the 
honour of re-awakening the devotion to national 
literature, and offending Austria, and thus causing an 
annoyance to the Grand Duke which later on led 
to its suppression, we cannot dwell to the length 
that the subject deserves. It is enough to refer 
to Vieusseux's receptions held weekly in the evening 
and preceded by a modest dinner, to which were 
invited some of the most assiduous attendants of 
the receptions, Niccolini, Montani, CoUetta, Pepe, 
Tommaseo, Giordani, and Mario Pieri, that devout 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 299 

flatterer of himself, who chronicled these reunions 
in a manuscript journal, by which he is far better 
known than by all his works in prose, and — Heaven 
save the mark ! — in verse ! 

The Library was a dangerous centre of liberal 
propaganda. The newspapers and periodicals which 
came to it from abroad, the books and pamphlets 
were the cause of great vigilance on the part of 
the police. In a confidential report of the 30th of 
July, 1822, there is an account of an engraving seen 
at Vieusseux's, representing all the principal sovereigns 
of Europe standing close together, with a pedestal 
on their heads on which was a statue of the 
Constitution. The proprietor of the engraving was, 
naturally, the Marchese Gino Capponi, " who," ac- 
cording to the report, *' has often caused to be found 
in that library articles of a similar nature which 
reach him from abroad by secret ways." 

The literary society of Florence as well as the 
political liberals looked upon Capponi as their head 
and the Library as their centre. Vieusseux was con- 
sidered as a ferocious liberal, astute and independent, 
and was suspected of holding communication with 
the most dangerous revolutionists ; but no one could 
ever catch him in the act, nor did the Government 
ever dare to " penetrate into the recesses of the 
Library," nor to molest Capponi. Ferdinand III., who 
from his exile at Salzburg had written to the Mar- 
chese Capponi, Gino's father : " While I have life, I 
shall be Italian," would never consent to the rigorous 



300 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

regime counselled by Austria, and when Salvotti 
scolded fiercely from Milan, insisting that Gino 
Capponi should be ordered to give up certain corre- 
spondence which had passed between him and Federico 
Confalonieri, the Grand Duke answered that he never 
imposed such offices upon the gentlemen of his house- 
hold. Thus, between worldly amusements and the 
study of Greek, the Marchese was preparing him- 
self to become to his country what poor Frederic 
Confalonieri would fain have been for his. Capponi 
bore his name, his fame, the admiration and esteem 
of all with the same ease with which he wore the 
most carefully selected costumes made after the latest 
London fashion. He listened quietly to the gossip 
of the gay world, but never deigned to repeat it, 
even to his most intimate friends. In 1821 when 
the Count Giraud had already begun to air his satirical 
talents in Florentine drawing-rooms, Capponi wrote 
to Velo : " There is a recent epigram of his which 
you might be curious to see, but I will never be the 
one to tell it you, because the argument is one of 
those with which I do not choose to meddle." From 
the meditative idleness of Varramista he returned 
to fashionable life, sometimes to those mad bursts of 
dissipation which occasionally took possession of him, 
but which, as he himself said, were not innate vices 
of his character. To the Marchese Pucci, who often 
visited London, he used to give commissions, ordering 
from Stulz the tailor, coats and white pique vests, and 
from another tailor, William, pantaloons of blue 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 301 

cloth and of roshendock. He sent for the finest 
undershirts, for white cravats, silk pocket-handkerchiefs 
of the latest fashion, and boxes of Scotch snufF, of 
which some was for ladies. Then he wanted little 
machines for sharpening pencils, and razors, but sent 
besides for classical books, the works of Lord Byron, 
and important volumes of history. To him, an 
open-handed and liberal gentleman, his friends had 
recourse whenever they wished to set on foot any 
new undertaking, and for every work of mercy, and 
found him always ready to spend both money and 
trouble. To Guglielmo Libri, a man of powerful 
mind, but led away by a stormy youth, he gave 
admonition, counsel and assistance. Pietro Colletta, 
who returned to Florence almost disabled by the 
cold of Moscow, whither he had been sent, found 
quiet and leisure for study in a small Villa at La 
Pietra ; and there Colletta wrote the larger portion 
of his history. To correct the pages of this friend, 
who was said to have a heart as big as the Cupola 
of the Duomo and to put it all into his writings, 
there gathered around him Capponi, Giuliano 
FruUani, the engineer, a man of high cultivation, 
Vieusseux, Montani, Giacomo Leopardi, Giordani, 
Niccolini and Francesco Forti. Colletta was very 
glad of these corrections and once got quite angry 
with Leopardi, who in several pages of history 
only changed a " to " into " in " and an " in order 
that" into "so that." There were hot discussions, 
in which Niccolini grew heated and Giordani angry. 



302 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Mario Fieri, the faithful Pylades of this literary 
group, so greatly his superiors, was always quar- 
relling with somebody, even with Niccolini, whom 
he believed to be jealous of a prize given to him 
(Fieri) by the Accademia della Crusca, but with 
whom he became reconciled and returned to the 
lunches, which consisted in summer and autumn of 
a plate of figs only. 

Tuscan literary society counted also more than one 
Egeria ; the foremost of these being the Marchesa 
Carlotta de' Medici-Lenzoni, in whose house Giordani 
met that most beautiful girl of fourteen,, consumed 
by incurable melancholy, whom he celebrated in one 
of his most successful prose works. The Psyche 
of Tenerani. In the house of this highly educated 
woman, which stood beside the burial-place of Boccaccio 
at Certaldo, he had met Niccolini, besides Madame 
Rosellini, a writer of poems now forgotten, and many 
artists and musicians who in travelling passed through 
Florence. And in the house of the sisters Certellini 
in Via Vigna Nuova, the house which stands next to 
the Loggia de' Rucellai, foregather the most intimate 
friends and most faithful admirers of Niccolini, who 
was a guest and almost master in the house in his 
later years. 

But when the salon of the Duchess of Albany was 
closed there was no literary salofiy properly so called, 
left in Florence. The flower of serious and cultivated 
society went to Vieusseux, and did not omit to visit 
the Marchese Capponi. A celebrity in the world of 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 303 

letters sometimes came to Vieusseux, and the reception 
assumed a sort of solemn character, as when Alessandro 
Manzoni with his wife and six children came to 
Florence. Fauriel, Sismondi, Casimir de la Vigne 
also came and were received and feted, as well as 
Savigny, Bartolommeo Borghesi, ChampoUion, the 
Dantophil Witte, the Earl of Guilford, and many- 
more. For Florence at that time was a place of 
artistic pilgrimage, and a secure and quiet refuge 
for great and meditative minds. Lord Byron came 
in 1 8 17 to visit the galleries, whence he issued, as he 
has written, " dazzled and drunk with beauty." Shelley 
remained there some months, and composed there 
in 1 8 19 the last act of his Prometheus Unbound. 
In the Medicean Venus, in the Niobe^ and in the 
pictures (brought triumphantly back among us from 
France three years before by the Senator Alessandri 
and the painter Benvenuti) he sought the spirit of 
form. But he was unable to remain long, as the cold 
winds and the water disagreed with him. But in 
the Cascine, where he was wont to take solitary walks, 
he wrote the Ode to the West Wind^ one of his most 
perfect poems ; and in the Gallery he conceived the 
fragment to the Medusa of Leonardo^ where he strove 
to express the influence of art upon poetry. Samuel 
Rogers passed whole mornings in the Tribune, contem- 
plating the Venus^ I know not whether striving to call 
her into life or to inspire himself by beholding her. 
Walter Savage Landor, who came to Florence in 1821, 
spent the rest of his life there, living first in the 



304 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Palazzo Medici and then in his Villa at Fiesole (now 
belonging to Professor Fiske), where he gathered all 
the English who came to Florence admiring the author 
of the Imaginary Conversations^ in which elegant 
prose he has succeeded in combining art and erudition, 
the ancient and the modern world, infusing life into 
both. Brusque and eccentric, he permitted no liberties, 
and on the order of expulsion being brought to him by 
a policeman of low class, incited by a servant whom he 
turned out of his house for theft, he appealed to the 
Grand Duke, who decided in his favour. Of Floren- 
tine society he was no great lover, but an excellent 
judge, and wrote about it with great freedom to the 
English periodicals, narrating all its small meannesses, 
among others the story of a gentleman who sold his 
wife's wardrobe when the breath was hardly out of 
her body. He quarrelled with the Marchese Medici, 
and wrote to him complaining that he had enticed 
away his coachman. Medici having called on him, 
perhaps to excuse himself, entered the room where 
Mrs. Landor was sitting with his hat on ; Landor, 
entering, took the hat off his head and, taking him 
by the arm, marched him out of the house, sending 
him afterwards, by the hands of a policeman, a formal 
notice that he was leaving his house {disdetta). 



"DUT as space warns us to conclude, we must go 
^^ back to politics, and mention a few memorable 
events which occurred between 1817 and 1831. 

On September 30, 18 17, under the majestic vault 
of Santa Maria del Fiore, Monsignor Morali celebrated 
the nuptials of Carlo Alberto of Savoy-Carignan with 
Maria Teresa di Toscana, a young girl of sixteen, very 
pious, and adorned with all the most exquisite gifts 
which become a princess. There was the usual 
cannonading, the usual crowd in the streets, two lines 
of soldiers from the Duomo to the Pitti Palace, pranzo 
di gala at Court, drives at the Cascine in grand tenue 
and fireworks from the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. 
On the 6th of October the young couple left for 
Turin, accompanied as far as Covigliajo in the Appen- 
nines by the Grand Duke and the Archduke Leopold 
and his sister. On the 1 6th of November there was 
another marriage, in the SS. Annunziata ; Leopold, 
Hereditary Grand Prince of Tuscany, married the 
Princess Maria Anna Carolina of Saxony, yioxo, festas 
more cannonades, more fireworks ; Court balls and 
dinners, and balls at the theatres. But the marriage 



20 



305 



3o6 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

was childless, and in order to prevent Tuscany from 
falling under the dominion of Austria, Ferdinand III , 
who had passed his fiftieth year, was induced, on May 6, 
1 82 1, to espouse the Princess Maria Ferdinanda of 
Saxony, sister to his daughter-in-law. On April 2, 
1 82 1, at three o'clock in the morning, there descended 
at the Schneiderff's Hotel, Lung' Arno Guicciardini 
(now Pension Barbensi), His Highness the Prince 
of Carignan, under the name of Count de Barge. At 
eight o'clock he sent his aide-de-camp to the Pitti Palace 
to give notice of his arrival to the Grand Duke, and 
going at nine o'clock in person to visit him, remained 
more than an hour in conversation with his father- 
in-law, and stayed to dinner with him without any 
etiquette or formality. Forced to become the guest 
of the Grand Duke he was soon afterwards joined 
by the Princess Maria Teresa, who between Nice and 
Leghorn ran the risk of shipwreck with her son. 
Carlo Alberto carried about the streets of Florence his 
grave, mournful countenance, which the people, used 
to jovial faces, looked upon with wonder. He had 
to go about here and there with the Court, to Siena to 
be present at tiresome and interminable processions ; 
to Prato for a horrid horse-race, following the Grand 
Duke, who, rejuvenated by his second marriage, went 
about in a straw hat and gaiters, visiting his estates 
on foot and looking after the forage and the grain like 
any other good proprietor. A portion of the summer 
was passed at Poggio Imperiale, whence the Grand Duke 
came down to the city on foot ; in the evening there 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 307 

was the drive in the Cascine, greatly frequented by 
foreigners, and the theatre when there was no reception 
at Court. The Prince of Carignan, humiliated, un- 
popular, shutting up in his own heart the true secret 
of his conduct, passed from deep depression to all 
forms of worldly amusement, with his good-natured 
and faithful aide-de-camp, his Sancho Panza, Silvano 
Costa, whose devotion rescued him from many a scrape. 
On September 16, 1822, there happened at the Villa 
at Poggio Imperiale an incident which just missed 
depriving Italy of her future liberator. The nurse of 
the little prince of Carignan, trying to kill mosquitoes 
with a lighted taper, set fire to the curtains of the bed 
in which lay Victor Emmanuel, and seeing the flames, 
in order to save the boy who had only a few unim- 
portant burns, she received such terrible wounds, as 
nearly caused her death. The Princess Maria Teresa, 
who soon afterwards gave birth to Prince Ferdinand, 
afterwards the Duke of Genoa, had to be bled to avert 
the ill effects of the fright she had received. 

On June 18, 1824, after five days' illness, while the 
whole population of Florence trembled for the safety 
of their prince, the Grand Duke Ferdinand III. died. 
His death was looked upon as a public disaster. 
People wept in the streets, and those were honest tears, 
spontaneous and sincere. The exiles, too, wept, for 
they recognised the virtues of the good and liberal 
and tolerant sovereign whose indulgence they had 
experienced. Landor, in one of his Imaginary 
Conversations J gives an excellent portrait of the 



3o8 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

Grand Duke, and cites his last words to his son 
Leopold. " Take care of my wife, of your sister, and 
of my people." And then, after a pause : " In these 
circumstances, the theatres are always closed for a long 
space of time, but many people who earn their bread 
in that way, suffer from this. Shorten the Court 
mourning." 

A few hours after the remains of the good prince 
had been laid to rest in the cold vaults of San Lorenzo, 
whilst the Hereditary Prince and the Grand Duchesses 
had gone to hide their • grifef in the Villa at Castello, 
the Count of Bombelles, the Austrian Minister, pre- 
sented himself at Court, asking for the Archduke 
Leopold and sayihg that he had instructions for him 
from Vienna. ■ Fossombroni, guessing at the trick, 
hastened to receive him in his quality of Secretary 
of State of the new sovereign, whose succession to the 
throne Bombelles wished to impede; and on June 
19th an edict was published, announcing the death of 
Ferdinand IIL and the succession of the new Grand 
Duke, Leopold IL 

He immediately lowered the predial taxes by a 
third, revoked those upon the slaughter-houses, which 
had been in force since the Republic, completed the 
new surveys, continued the work of drainage in the 
Maremma, and set an almost ostentatious example of 
economy. The bottle of Burgundy opened at dinner 
on one day returned for several more, until it was 
empty. The princesses dressed with simplicity, and 
the life at Court was very simple. The paternal 




THE GRAND DUKE LEOPOLD II. 



[To face page 308;. 



J 



THE TWILIGHT OF TUt PAST 309 

policy of Ferdinand's government was still maintained ; 
the exiles were tolerated ; if, threatened with expulsion, 
they alleged a plausible excuse, they were left un- 
molested. Some may recall the famous duel between 
Pepe and Lamartine, which the police did not only 
entirely fail to prevent, but heard of only when it 
was over. And Pepe remained at Florence, looked 
upon almost with favour by the government. The 
occasion of the duel had been the well-known dispute 
concerning the line in Dante : 

" Poscia pill che il dolor pote il digiuno," 
(And famine did what sorrow could not do) 

the advocate Carmignani maintaining that the Count 
Ugolino had devoured his children. And in Florence 
at that time there went about the following epigram : 

" To eat his children dead that man may come 
Through hunger, strikes a lawyer with no wonder, 
For he devours, when he has brought them under, 
Not children only ; father, mother, home." 

The censure and the " Good Government " strove 
in vain against the general spirit of epigram that 
pervaded Florence later on, when to Giuseppe 
Giusti's verse, Giraud gave its first inspiration to 
satire. Among the papers of the censor, P. Mauro 
Bernardini, there exists a collection of epigrams of 
which the author seems to have been a certain 
Gherardo Ruggieri ; and some may be found there 



310 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

which, some time after 1826, were put forward by 
others as their own. 

" To Seraphin the painter a good priest 
Upon his deathbed brought the sacrament, 
And said ' See, Serafino, how the Lord 
Comes, as He came into Jerusalem,' 
The dying man in failing accents answered : 
'Yes, I can tell that by the steed that bears Him.'" 

In Tuscany, the liberal opposition, having no other 
method of making itself heard, spoke out in verse, 
when it could not succeed in compromising the 
sovereign by some carefully contrived expedient. 
In 1830, when Leopold II. was to return from 
Vienna, where it was feared that he had yielded to 
the suggestions of Austria, it seemed a good oppor- 
tunity to Cosimo Ridolfi, Capponi and Rinuccini 
to accord him an affectionate and festive reception, 
celebrating the occasion by an inscription to be carved 
upon a marble column, to be erected three miles 
outside of Porta San Gallo on the Bologna road. 
The inscription, by Pietro Giordani, was prepared and 
approved, and permission accorded to collect public 
subscriptions for the occasion. When, suddenly, 
the permission was revoked and all manifestations 
prohibited, Ridolfi, Capponi and Rinuccini resigned 
their offices of Chamberlains and of Director of the 
Mint. The day after their resignations had been 
accepted, Giuseppe Poerio and Pietro Giordani, who 
had lived for many years in Florence, received 
peremptory orders to depart. A similar order was 



THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 311 

also given to General Colletta, who was accorded a 
delay in consequence of the state of his health. The 
police, then under the direction of Ciantelli and 
instructed by the. Sanfedisti, suspicious of revolu- 
tionary movements, such as had broken out here 
and there since the change of affairs in France, began 
to give trouble, and looked with a jaundiced eye 
even upon the monument to Dante Alighieri, which 
was erected in 1830 in the Church of Santa Croce. 
The Prince had no one to give him sincere advice, 
which would have been a counterpoise to the power 
of Ciantelli. The risings in Bologna and Modena, 
in February, 1831, and those in the Roman States, 
the insurrections which surrounded Tuscany on every 
side, required precautions, and protection against 
similar acts. The more ardent among the liberals 
were much excited ; it seemed just the moment to 
constrain the Prince to grant a Constitution. 
Guglielmo Libri, on his return from Paris, where he 
had been deeply implicated in the movement of July, 
went in January, 1831, to Gino Capponi to induce 
him to look with favour on the conspiracy in 
progress. 

On the evening of Berlingaccio (the last Thursday 
in Carnival) while the Grand Duke, as usual, was 
walking about in the pit of the Pergola Theatre, the 
conspirators were to surround him, take possession 
of his person, and carry him off to a place of 
security, where he would be forced to sign all kinds 
of documents. But Capponi wisely opposed this 



312 MEN AND MANNERS OF OLD FLORENCE 

plan, considering it too risky, and, in case of failure, 
sufficient to drive the Prince into the arms of 
Austria. And the conspiracy, although it was 
attempted, failed. The Grand Duke, on February 
lo, 1 83 1, went, as usual, to the Pergola, and, after 
half-past ten, went down into the pit, where he 
remained until after midnight. The police watched 
over him. Libri and his fellow-conspirators did not 
appear, but close beside the Grand Duke, with a short 
dagger hidden in his sleeve, there went a certain 
Marco Ciatti, custodian of the Riccardian Library, 
a robust and resolute man, determined to dispose 
of the first that moved. 

He was the sole conspirator ! 



NOTE 

These five essays on Florentine life and manners 
at different periods have been translated from the 
Italian, and now appear together in book form for 
the first time. Two, however, have already seen 
the light in English print, A Florentine Merchant 
as a magazine article, and The Private Life of 
the Renaissance Florentines independently. A large 
number of the illustrations have never been published 
before, and some have been obtained from private 
collections. 

I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance 
received from Miss Mary G. Steegmann in translating 
three of the essays and revising proofs. My thanks 
are also due to Commendatore Vittorio Alinari and 
Cavaliere Carlo Brogi for the permission given to 
reproduce photographs from their collections. 



313 



INDEX 



Adimari, Fiammetta, 133 

Adimari-Ricasoli wedding, 126 

Adimari Tower, 267 

Adventurers, 123 

Advices for family life, 66, 67 

Alarms, 91 

Albany, Countess of, 277, 278, 284, 
286, 302 

Alberti, Leon Battista, 127 

Albizi, Francesca, 109 

Aldobrandini, Silvestro, 254 

Alessandri, Giovanni degli, 281 

Alighieri, see Dante 

Alliances, 97 

Almsgiving, 61 

America discovered, 140 

Amerighi, Amerigo, no, in 

Anecdotes, 51 

Angiolieri, Cecco, 47 

Antinori, Amerigo, 254 

Antologia, The, and its contributors, 
298 

Archivio della Grascia, 112 

Aretino, Pietro, 145, 148, 150, 201, 205 

Arnoldi, Alberto, 103 

Arragon, Cardinal of, 155, 156, 157 

Arragon, Tullia of, 144, 146, 148, 155, 
158, 159, 160, 164, 170, 171, 172, 
173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 190, 191, 
195, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 
205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 
212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 
219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 
226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 
233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 
240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 24s, 246, 
247, 248, 249, 250 

Arrighi, Alessandro, 196, 223 



Arrighi, Benedetto, 196 
Artists' jokes, 93 
Aspasia, 147 
Austrian restoration, 258 

Baciocchi, Elisa and Felice, 259, 279 
Baglioni, Ridolfo, 196 
Bagnoli, Pietro, 256 
Baldovinetti's memoranda, 100 
Bandello, Matteo, 149 
Baptisms, 36 
Baptistery, The, 18, 24 
Bartolommei, Girolamo, 255 
Beauharnais, Eugene, 279 
Bells, 23 

Benedetti, Francesco, 256 
Bentivoglio, Ercole, 196 
Benucci, Lattanzio, 195, 196, 221 
Bernardini, Mauro, 309 
Bernardino, Fra, of Siena, 1 14 
Berti, Bellincione, his wife, 41 
Biadajolo's miniatures, 17, 86 
Bigallo frescoes, 17 
Biscaca, a game, 43 
Bishop's Palace, The, 24 
Bombelles, Count, 308 
Bonaparte, Jerome, 284 
Bonaparte, Joseph, 287 
Bonaparte, Louis, 286 
Bonaparte, Matilde, 287 
Bonaparte, Pauline, 285 
Boncompagno, 42 

Bonvicino, Alessandro, 143, 144, 247 
Borbone, Ludovico di, 258 
Borghese, Cammillo, 285 
Borghesi, Bartolommeo, 303 
Borghini, Vincenzo, 17 
Botticelli's Assumption, 87 



315 



3^6 



INDEX 



Boundary, First, of Florence, 17 
Bridges of Florence, 19, 21 
Broccardo, 203 
Bruno di Giovanni, 93 
Brunellesco, Filippo, 93 
Brunelleschi, Salvestro, 106 
Bufalo, Angelo dal, 149 
Buonaccorso di Piero, 50, 117, 118 
Buondelmonti, Valore, 105 
Byron, Lord, 303 

Cacciaguida's praise of ancient 

customs, 33 
Calabria, Duke of, 107 
Calandrino, 93 
Calimala, 46 
Calzaioli, Via, 267 
Campana, Domenico, 150 
Campana, Giulia, 146, 151, 155, 156, 

157, 244 
Campanile, The, 17 
Capponi, Gino, 266, 278, 295, 296, 

297, 298, 299,300, 301, 302, 310, 311 
Carmignani, Giovanni, 309 
Castiglionchio, Messer Lapo da, 89 
Castiglione, Baldassarre, 161 
Caterina di San Celso, 148, 150 
Cattaneo, Simonetta, 135 
" Cavazza's Will," 74, 75, 76 
Cennini's fresco, 86 
Censorship, 309 
Census of Rome under Leo X., 150, 

151 

Certellini, Sisters, 302 
Challenge, A, for Tullia, 165 
Champollion, J. F., 303 
Chariot races, 257, 273 
Chiocca, Messer Pietro, 249 
Chronicles of Nuremberg, 87 
Ciantelli, chief of the police, 311 
Ciatti, Marco, 312 
Cibo, Francesco, 136, 137 
Clary, Madame, 287 
Clelio, TuUia's son, 249, 250 
College of the SS. Annunziata, 297 
Colletta, Pietro, 298, 301, 311 
Colonna, Vittoria, 169, 171, 177 
Commune, The, and its citizens, 63 



Confalonieri, Federico, 300 
Confessions of a peasant, 28 
Contrast between morality and prac 

tice, 95, 96 
Corilla Olimpica, 258 
Corn-market, 85 

Corset and its restoration, 293, 294 
Corsi, Tommaso, 254 
Corsini, Neri, 263 
Corsini, Prince Tommaso, 284 
Cosimo I., Duke of Florence, 214, 

235, 237 
Cosmetics and wigs, 42 
Costa, Silvano, 307 
Courtesans in Rome, 152, 153 
Courtesans of the Cinquecento, 148 
Crasso, Francesco, 196, 214 
Cristofano di Fuccio, 57 
Cristofora, Tullia's servant, 247 
Cuppano of Montefalco, 196 

Dangers in ancient life, 63 

Dante, 37 

Dante's ballad, 45 

Dante's censures of the social life, 34 

Dante's monument in Santa Croce, 

311 

Dati, Gregorio, 120 

Datini, Francesco, 102, 116, 122 

Davanzati, Chiaro, 16 

Defects of Florentine tongue, 50 

De la Vigne, Casimir, 303 

D'Elci, Count Angelo Maria, 281 

Delminio, GiuHo Camillo, 196 

Demidoff, Anatole, 287 

Demidoff family, 288, 289 

De Sanctis, Francesco, 264 

Diotima, 147 

Domenichi, Lodovico, 155, 160, 161 

Domenico di Michelino's painting, 87 

Domestic life, 39 

Donatello, 93 

Donati, Gemma, 37 

Donna Filippa, 42 

Donna Gemma, 42 

Dowries, 36, 37 

Dupont, General, 258 

Dwellings of the people, 89 



INDEX 



317 



Enlargement of Florence, 20 

Entering Florence, 22 

Entry of Ferdinand III. in Florence, 

253, 254, 25s, 256 
Envy, 61 

Epicureanism, 282, 292 . 

Este, d', Isabella, 170, 172 
Etruria, King of, 258 
Expenses, 73 

Extension of the Commune, 33 
External history of Florence, 51 

Fashions, 43, 104, 105, 106 

Fasting. 61 

Fat Carpenter, 93 

Father's authority, 98 

Fauriel, Charles, 303 

Feasts and festivals, 270, 271 

Ferdinand III., 253, 254, 255, 256, 

257, 258, 260, 262, 263, 265, 266, 

281, 292, 299, 306, 307 
Fiacres, public vehicles, 269 
Filarete, Francesco, 138 
Fiquelmont, Count of, 263 
Fire prevention, 63 
Fires in Florence, 25, 89, 90 
Fireworks, 257 
Floods of the Arno, 25 
Florence at the time of Ferdinand 

III., 267, 268, 269 
Florentine contemporaries of Caccia- 

guida, 32 
Folgore of San Geminiano, 45 
Food, 39 

Foreign officials in Florence, 109 
Foscolo, Ugo, 284, 296 
Fossombroni, Vittorio, 262, 264, 1265, 

292, 308 
Fracastoro, Girolamo, 196 
Frangipane, Messer Mario, 250 
Fresco, A, in the upper cloisters of 

Santa Croce, 86 
FruUani, Emilio, 267 
Frullani, Leonardo, 263 
, Funerals, 37, 38, 115 
Furniture, 39 

Gaddi, Taddeo, 103 



Gamblers in the fresco of Lecceto, 91 

Gambling, 43 

Garzia, Don, 236 

Gates of Florence, 19, 20, 21 

Gaultier, General, 257 

Gioggi, Bartolo, 93 

Giordani, Pietro, 298, 301, 310 

Giovenale, Latino, 196 

Giraffe, The, of the Sultan, 139 

Giraldi, Giovanni Battista, 173, 206, 

207, 208, 209 
Giraud, Count Giovanni, 300, 309 
Girl's life, 67 

Gondi, Guglielmo, his palace, 139 
Gossips in ancient Florence, 25 
Grandinelli, Ser Virgilio, 247, 248 
Grasso legnaiolo, see Fat Carpenter, 

93 
Grazia, Niccolo, 167, 201, 204 
Grazzini, Antonio, surnamed Lasca, 

230 
Guerriera, Countess, 44 
Guerrin Meschino, by Tullia, 199, 243 
Guicciardi, Silvestro dei, 211, 213 
Guicciardini, Luigi, 114 
Guilford, Earl of, 303 

Hetaerce, 147, 245 

Hospital of St. John the Evangelist, 

24 
House doors, 64 
Husbands, 39 
Hygienic warnings, 66 

Illegitimate children, 41 

Illuminations, 257 

Imperia, a courtesan, 148 

Incontri, Clementina, 279 

Incredulity, 92, 93 

Individualism, 119 

Influence of Greco-Roman antiquity, 

147 
Inns and taverns, 46 
Italian colonies abroad, 46 
Italian names and surnames, 49 

Jesters, 44 

Jests and stories, 36 



3.8 



INDEX 



Journals in Florence, 260 

Journeys, 46 

Lamartine, Alphonse, 289, 290, 309 

Lamb, the sign of the wool trade, 47 

Lamps in the streets, 259 

Landor, Walter Savage, 303, 307 

Landscape, Florentine, 16 

Lasca, see Grazzini, Antonio, 230 

Lawsuits, 73 

Lechi, Lieutenant-General, 259 

Leopardi, Giacomo, 301 

Leopold II., 257, 305, 308, 310 

Libri, Guglielmo, 301, 311 

Life, daily, in the fourteenth century, 

64 
Life like a cask of wine, 62 
Loan banks, 48 
Loggie, 93 

Longueville, de, Madame, 293 
Lord of Love, 45 
Love of luxury, 41 
Lucarini, Ser Lattanzio, 212 
Luneville, Treaty of, 263 

Macinghi, Alessandra, loi, 124, 125 

MannelH, Piero, 196, 225, 226, 227, 229 

Manners and customs of the first 
citizens, 33 

Manni Ugolini, Sigismondo, 211 

Manzoni, Alessandro, 303 

Maria Anna Carolina of Saxony, her 
marriage, 305 

Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony, her 
marriage, 306 

Maria Louisa, 258 

Maria Theresa, her marriage, 305, 
306 

Maria Theresa and Louisa, Arch- 
duchesses, 257 

Marriages, 36, 37 

Martelli, Ludovico, 196 

Martelli, Nicolo, 196, 215 

Martelli, Ugolino, 196, 223 

Mazzei, Ser Lapo, 102, 120, 123, 135 

Meals, 39 

Medicean Carnival, 137, 138 

Medici, de'. Cardinal Ippolito, 196 

Medici, Clarice, 163 



Medici, Lorenzo, 135, 136, 137, 140 
Medici, Lorenzo, marries Clarice 

Orsini, 132 
Medici, Piero, his infantine letters, 

133, 134, 135 

Medici-Lenzoni, Carlotta, 302 

Medici, Marchese, 304 

Menou, Baron, General, 258 

Mercato, Vecchio, 24, 90, 91 

Merchants become bankers, 124 

Merchants of the twelfth to four- 
teenth centuries, 55 

Merimee, Prosper, 51 

Metternich, Prince, 262, 263 

Minutolo, Marshal, 259 

Miollis, General, 258 

Money not earned, 73 

Money-lenders and bankers, 47 

Monte, Morello, 16 

Montevarchi, da, Camillo, 196 

Molza, Francesco Maria, 167, 196, 201 

Moral directions, 71 

Morali, Monsignore, 305 

Morality, 40 

Morality of merchants, 97 

Morelli, Giovanni, 119 

Moretti, Matteo, host, 247 

Morgincap, 36 

Morning, A, in Florence, 23 

Morrocchesi, Antonio, 256 

Mozzi, Teresa, 283 

Murat, Joachim, 258, 259 

Musicians and singers, 44 

Muzio, Girolamo, 157, 167, 168, 178, 
179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 
186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 
193, 194, 196, 197, 212, 213, 227, 
228, 237 

Mysticism and passion, 293 

Naples, King of, 260 

Napoleon, Emperor, 258, 263 

Napoleonic code, 262 

Napoleonic epoch, and its character, 

291 
Nardi, Gaetano, cook and chronicler, 

269 
Nardi, Jacopo, 196 



INDEX 



319 



Nari, Tiberio, 196 

Necessaries of life, 65 

Nencini, Pandolfini-, Eleonora, 284 

Neri, Picciolino, 47 

New men, 93 

Niccolini, Gio, Battista, 298, 301, 302 

Nita, 42 

Noises without, 65 

Nurses and artificial feeding, 67 

OcHiNO, Bernardino, 169, 171, 196 

Offences, 61 

Or San Michele, 24 

Orsini, Giordano, 196, 239 

Paganism revived, 137 

Palace of the Priori, 17 

Palmieri, Matteo, 87 

Panciatichi, Luisa and Margherita, 

283 
Pandolfini, Agnolo, 135 
Panunzio, Maestro, physician, 247, 

248, 249 
Paolo di Ser Pace da Certaldo, 50, 56 
Paolo Uccello, 93 
Paternal government and morality, 

292 
Pazzi, de', Alfonso, 229 
Penelope, TuUia's sister, 167, 222, 

242, 244, 24s 
People's ascension, 32 
Pepe, Gabriel, 298, 309 
Pergola, theatre, 311 
Peter, Leopold, and his reforms and 

government, 261 
Piazza del Comune, 24 
Picnic suppers, 280 
Pier Damiani, 42 
Pieri, Mario, 298, 299, 302 
Pilgrims and wayfarers, 46 
Pisani's roof, 268 
Pitti, Buonaccorso, 123, 135 
Pitti, Luca, 123 
Pius VI., Pope, 258 
Plagues, 119, 120, 121, 122 
Pleasure companies, 46 
Poerio, Giuseppe, 310 
Poliziano, Agnolo, 133, 138 



Pollajolo, Antonio, 138 

Poniatoski, 289 

Ponte Vecchio, place, 25 

Porzio, Simone, 196 

Practical advices, 72, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 

Priori's life, 94 

Proverbs and sayings, 59 

Public buildings in Florence, 85 

Pucci, Antonio, 90, loi. 

Razzi, Girolamo, 205 

Reille, General^ 258 

Religious orders abolished, 262 

Restorations and their effects, 292 

Riccardiana Library, 55, 312 

Ridolfi, Cosimo, 295, 297, 310 

Rinuccini, Pier Francesco, 279, 280, 

29s, 310 
Robberies, 26 

Rocca Romana, Duke of, 260 
Rogers, Samuel, 303 
Romanticism and its effects, 291 
Rospigliosi, Giuseppe, 254, 260 
Rossi, de, Tribaldo, 139, 140 
Rota Veneris, 41 
Rucellai, Giovanni, 125, 126, 127, 129, 

135 
Rucellai and Medici marriage, 126, 

127, 128, 130, 131, 132 
Ruggieri, Gherardo, his epigrams, 

309 
Rustico di Filippo, 40 

Sacchetti, Franco, 90, 93, 94, 103, 

105, no. III, 115 
St. John's Day, 273, 274, 275 
Salome, 144 
Salons of Florence, 277 
Salutati, Benedetto, 138 
Salvotti, Baron, 300 
San Giorgio, a quarter, 29 
San Miniato, 19 
San Piero Scheraggio and its pulpit, 

86 
Santa Maria del Fiore, 17 
Santa Reparata, Church of, 24 
Savello, Giovambatista, 196, 238, 239 
Savigny, F. €., 303 



320 



INDEX 



Savoy-Carignan, Charles Albert, 305, 

306, 307 
Savonarola, Girolamo, 114, 140 
Ser Frulli, deceived by Bito, 28 
Shelley, P. B., 303 

Shop or warehouse. Establishing, 73 
Shops of Florence, 269 
Sismondi, J. C, 303 
Slaves in Florentine families, 99 
Soccebonel of Friuli, 94 
Social relations, 70, 71 
Soderini, Piero, 151 
Sonaglini, Bartolo, 116 
Sons, 69, 70 

Speroni, Sperone, 167, 196, 201, 205 
Spoliation of galleries and museums, 

260 
Stefani, Marchionne, 116 
Stendhal, 276 
Story-tellers, 92 

Streets of ancient Florence, 36, 88 
Strozzi, Filippo, loi, 133, 161, 162, 

163, 164, 166, 168, 169, 196 
Strozzi's palace founded, 139 
Studies in Florence, 48 
Stulz, London tailor, 300 
Suburbs of Florence, 20, 21 
Sumptuary laws, 107, 108, 109, 113, 

114, 115, 231 

Talenti, Francesco, 86 

Tasso, Bernardo, 167, 196, 201, 204 

Tassoni, Minister of Beauharnais, 
279 

Taxations, 261 

Tempi, Marchese, 283 

Tenerani's " Psyche," 302 

Textile fabrics, 47 

Toledo, Eleonora, Duchess of Flor- 
ence, 231, 234, 236, 237 

Toledo, Pedro, son of Eleonora, 231, 
234, 236 

Tolomei, Claudio, 196 

Tondi, Emilio, 196, 214 

Torelli, Lelio, 235 

Tornabuoni, Lucrezia, 133 

Tosio, Count, 144 

Tournaments and jousts, 138 



Towers of Florence, 16 
Town and country life under Fer- 
dinand III., 277 
Trattato di Matrimonio, by Muzio, 199 
Tricks and jokes, 27 
Trivulzio, Monsignore Antonio, 250 
Tuscan idiom, 49 

Uberti dwellings, 25 
Uccellatojo, 16 
Ugolino, Count, 309 
Umiliati friars, 47 
Unknown writers, 58 
Usury not a sin, 97 

Vacca, The, the great bell, 86 

Valois, de, Marie, 107 

Vanozza, mother of the Duke Valen- 
tino, 151 

Varchi, Benedetto, 195, 216, 217, 218, 
219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 
228, 229, 230, 232, 233, 237, 238, 
239, 240, 241, 243 

Vecellio, Cesare, 210 

Velluti, Donato, 117 

Vengeance, 62 

Vergerio, Pier Paolo, 227 

Vettori, Francesco, 161, 167, 168 

Victor Emmanuel, 307 

Vienna Congress, 292 

Vieusseux, Jean Pierre, 298, 299, 303" 

Views of ancient Florence, 86 

Villani, Giovanni, 33 

Volta, della, Simone, 196 

Walls, ancient, of Florence, 18 
Walls of the third cincture, 85 
Walls of the fourth circle, 267 
Warnings, moral and religious, 60 
William, London tailor, 300 
Will, 73 

Witte, Karl, 303 
Wives, 68, 69 
Women's condition in Flbrence, 68, 



Zaffetta, a courtesan, 145 
Zara, a game, 43 



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